The Kishin Meister
by LunarisAmor
Summary: It's been a year since Asura's defeat. Juliette Black, an old student with an icy history, returns to the DWMA at Lord Death's wish. Is being a Kishin-Human hybrid, losing a dear friend, and taking care of a seven-year old enough? Apparently not. There's a new evil rising. Worse than Medusa. Worse than Asura. Everything's at risk, and it's only going to get worse. Eventual KidxOC
1. Juliette Black's Return to the DWMA? P1

**THIS FANFICTION IS ONLY RATED T FOR DESCRIPTIVE VIOLENCE.**

JULIETTE'S P.O.V.

I stare down at the Evil Human down below. It's no wonder why his name is Shizāoni. His wolf-like body is entirely made of scissor blades: the long scales on his back, the claws on his paws, even the long ears sprouting from his head look razor-sharp to the touch. He's has a Kishin-Egg Soul for a while now. He's crouching over the poor man with his sickly gold eyes glowing hungrily. Geez, that guy screamed. Screamed and screamed like a little girl until he fainted of fright. Even now, as he's passed out on the ground, his Pure Soul is screeching in fear.

Shizāoni raises one of his razor claws and lazily pulls it through the air until it hovers above the man's chest. It trembles up and down the man's form, as if it isn't sure which place is best to start. It eventually decides to start at his collarbone and presses its claw down into his skin. A red bead of blood appears instantly, growing bigger and bigger until it drips down the man's neck.

At that moment, I jump up from my place on the rooftop and begin to fall through the air down below. I see my reflection in the puddle of water in the bricks below at the same time Shizāoni does. The despicable Evil Human quickly turns around as his lips pull back from his jaws, flashing deadly sharp yellow teeth splattered and stained with blood...

* * *

_My name is Juliette Black. Those who don't know my real name call me 'The Kishin Meister,' for a very simple reason: I'm half-Kishin, half-human._

_Almost everyone I meet (who are brave and kind enough to talk to me) says that I look exactly like my mother. Which I true, because I actually saw a picture of her as a teenager and confused it with a picture of myself. We have the same not-too-pale skin and bright silver eyes. The same ears, the same nose, the same shape of our lips, and the same silk black hair that reaches down to the elbows. _

_I'll explain the Kishin part later...Or, someone else will..._

_I won't bore you with the details of my life. Nothing but heartbreak and sorrow, nothing to get into. But, I'm sure it'll come up later._

_Despite being part-Kishin, I've never laid so much as a finger on a Human Soul. I would never be one of those horrible monsters. They murdered innocent people and ate their Souls to gain power. I may be part Kishin, but I'm also part human. _

_At one point, I found that I was hopeless. I had no home. No one to turn to. I hadn't eaten in three days and I found myself sleeping in the snow. I didn't know how long I would go on._

_Just when it seemed like all hope was lost, Lord Death himself appeared right in front of me._

_My first instinct was to flee. I had heard of Lord Death a thousand times before from other Kishins' bitter tongues. His job was to defeat the Kishin. Exterminate them and destroy them to protect Human Souls. I, for one, had always liked him, even before I met him. But what if he thought I was evil and killed me just like the other Kishin? What if he tried to kill me like so many had tried before?  
_

_He held out his white, square hand to me before I could flee. He had no mouth and his eyes were nothing more than three black holes in a skull, but I knew that if he did have a face, he'd be smiling. _"It's alright. I'm here to help you."

_I barely hesitated a second before I took his hand._

_I don't know how, but in the blink of an eye we were in Lord Death's 'Death Room,' as he called it. I still don't know how it was a room, rather than a realm. The floor disappeared into a white haze and it had a bright blue, cloudy sky. Tainted windows and skeletal railings were scattered and floating about. _

_I won't go into too much detail on what Lord Death told me. He basically said he knew that I really _was _good and that he wanted me to attend the Death Weapon Meister Academy, the one academy in the world that trains people to hunt and destroy Kishin. He said I could stay there and belong there, and that if anyone gave me a hard time, he'd take care of them at once._

_I agreed._

**Time-Skip Three Days Later...**

_I don't know why, but I wasn't surprised when the news of me being a Kishin-Human got around the Academy like a wildfire. It seemed like everyone knew what I was, but about a fourth of them seemed to think it was cool. I got a lot of hello's and hand-waves when I walked through the halls. There were, of course, the majority of students who didn't like me for me, but they simply avoided me. I appreciated that._

_My room was okay, I guess. I never had any belongings to begin with, so it was bare for a while. But Lord Death gave me my first loan of $200 dollars once everything was sorted out, so I spent that on a few things to decorate my room a bit. A few candles. A flower vase. Decorative bed quilts. That was it._

_Lord Death said that my Kishin-brought abilities were extraordinary. That must of been true, because no one else in the Academy could do what I did. I'll explain it later._

_Three days after my arrival, Lord Death called me to the Death Room to introduce me to my Weapon._

_Now, I already knew how the system worked. A Weapon was someone who could transform _into_ a weapon for combat use. A Meister (apparently, I was one) was someone who controlled the Weapon. They would be paired together and go on missions to collect Kishin souls. After 99 Kishin souls and 1 Witch's soul, the Weapon would become a Death Scythe suitable for Lord Death's own use._

_The thing is, Weapons and Meisters had to get along together on at least one level. On another level, their Soul Wavelengths had to be compatible. Those pairs who just never could get along were either split up or expelled, depending on how much damage they did. I didn't know how this would work. Because my soul was half-Kishin-Egg and half-Human-Soul, to put it simply, my wavelengths were like explosions and were probably impossible to cooperate with._

_When I entered the Death Room once more, I found both Lord Death and my new Weapon in there._

_He was a boy. Probably my age, maybe just a bit older. He had tan skin speckled with thin white scars. His carmine-colored hair was incredibly spiky and his eyes were the color of wheat. He stood a head taller than me and he was muscular by male means. His left bicep was covered in a bright red tattoo that reminded me of fire. His clothes were certainly peculiar. He wore a high-pulled white scarf that, I noticed, flared out four feet behind him. He also wore a black leather vest. But no shirt, so his entire chest, covered in tons of tiny white scars, was in plain view. His jeans were baggy and his leather sneakers were studded with spikes._

_His name was Splicer._

_Lord Death said that we would make good partners because we were alike in personality. Which I didn't understand, considering Lord Death's only known me for three days. Then again, he'd probably known me longer, considering he found me when I was in the middle of nowhere. Our Wavelengths went together, somehow. Splicer's Wavelengths filled the pauses in mine, or something like that._

_So then, Lord Death gave us our first lesson/assignment: to hunt down the Evil Human Hatya. She was a murderer. Already collected 23 Pure Souls and her own had just turned into a Kishin Egg. She romanticized her victims away somewhere private and ended accepted and went on our way._

_On our way to the mission, I learned a few things about Splicer. 1: He can be a real pain in the friggin' neck. 2: He's a ladies man, even if that 'lady' (A.K.A., me) keeps telling him to shut his trap. 3: He's a show-off. I swear, his arms never stopped flexing for half a second._

_We finally managed to find Hatya. She'd already claimed another victim and was just slurping up the last of his soul when we got there. She was pretty and ugly at the same time. Pretty in looks, with dirty blond hair and bright red eyes. But her expression was hideous and her eyes held the look of that of a crazed animal._

_I know I was leaping into this ideal pretty quickly__—I mean, I'd been at the DWMA for three days and I'm already hunting Kishin__—but somehow, everything just came naturally. Splicer transformed and jumped into my hands. He was a Sledgehammer, and a scary one at that, with a large, carmine head and a steel stem. But somehow, he was really light to me. _

_The three of us battled for a short time. She wasn't as hard to beat as I thought she'd be. She was fast and agile, but her movements were sloppy and her attacks ill-timed. We defeated her eventually when I rammed Splicer against her head. There was no blood. Rather, her form just curled in on itself until it exploded in black ribbons. The black ribbons vanished until the Kishin Egg was visible. _

_Splicer leaped up from my hand and, in a flash of carmine-red, turned back into his human form. He grabbed the Kishin Egg by the top and plucked it from the air so that it dangled from his fingers. He turned to me then, giving me a smirk. Not a cocky smirk, but a 'I-really-mean-it' smirk._

_"You're good," he said. As he raised the Kishin Egg to his lips, he added, "Especially for your first assignment."_

_That actually surprised me a bit. I tapped my fingers against my thighs and responded, "Thanks."_

_As he was licking off the nonexistent remainders of the Kishin Egg from his fingertips, the cocky smile returned. "Then again, I did most of the work."_

_I growled at that, and he just chuckled._

**One Year Later...**

_Over the course of the year we spent together, Splicer and I became almost inseparable. He still teased me, and I learned how to tease him back. We bickered like an old married couple. He almost always ribbed me for never getting a boyfriend. But he was like a brother to me. I can't tell you how many times he took care of me. The tiniest scratch on me was a torn limb to him. And it wasn't just in battle, either. I remember, once, when I received a terrible cold. I've never gotten one before, so it was like getting the Plague. To my surprise, Splicer didn't leave my side for a second, except to go get whatever I asked for. And it wasn't just physical ailment, either. I remember, once, a group of boys cornered me in the hall and taunted me mercilessly. Taunting turned to threatening and Splicer nearly murdered them. He especially surprised me on my fourteenth birthday when he bought me a box of 195 different chocolates (my favorite, he knew), each from a different country of the world. I returned the favor by getting him three different horror-fantasy movies for his fifteenth birthday._

_We'd managed to pull in 99 Kishin Eggs by the end of the year. Now we just had to get the last Witch's Soul. I was more excited than Splicer was to finally transform him into a Death Scythe. I let him pick which witch he wanted to go get. He chose the Witch Melanie Malbone...who just so happened to be one of the most powerful witches on the planet. Each and every one of her spells and potions could kill you in the blink of an eye. I tried to warn him, but in the end, we both ended up walking through the forest right outside Melanie's house._

_We broke through the forest line eventually. I didn't know what to expect of Melanie's house, but it was definitely unique. It was at least five stories high, the size of a football field, and round like a snow-globe. The walls were made of violet-painted cement with black wooden stairs embedded in them to make a pathway around the entire building. The windows were made of brightly stained glass and I'm pretty sure the roof had a gigantic hole sliced out of it, because a ridiculously large amount of colorful smoke was spewing from the top of the building, a lot more that could possibly come out of a chimney._

_I let Splicer plan this mission himself out. Instead of just going through the front(?) door of the building, he insisted on running the mile-long trek up the winding staircase that encircled the building. Which, I admit, I would have done to, just for the sake of a sneak-attack. He took the lead and I ran a foot behind him. Once, I tripped on a particularly choppy board and fell forward. Splicer caught me faster than I thought Weaponly possible and took my hand in his to pull me up. _

_In all the time it took to climb up that staircase, he never let go of my hand._

_I'll start going into detail now._

_The staircase ended just near the top, where I supposed the last room was. The roof of the building was above a foot above the door, so we had about seven feet we had to get up. Splicer knelt down and cupped his hands together, and I set my left foot in it. He hauled me up into the air and I climbed up onto the roof, turning around to pull him up as well._

_I was right. The roof did have a gigantic hole sliced out of the top the size of a baseball stadium. Through the ever-changing, sparkling smoke that billowed into the sky, I could make out the room's interior. White, green, and violet tiles made up the floor. The walls were covered in light blue, flowery wallpaper hung with infinite items that I couldn't possibly name, peeling and frayed at the trim and corners. The most noticeable thing in there was the big, black iron cauldron. It was gargantuan (for a cauldron). Eighteen feet high and sixteen feet wide. I couldn't fully see what was inside at the time. All I saw was the flashes of bright color that came through the thick sparkling smoke. _

_And then, I saw Melanie herself. To human eyes, she would be considered pretty, maybe even beautiful. Her shaggy hair fell down to her hips in layers of vibrant orange silk. Her eyes were the color of amber, almond-shaped and round at the same time, with slightly slitted pupils. Her snowy pale skin was flawless, save for the freckle of a beauty mark under her right eye. She wore the traditional Witch's clothes you saw in children's books: long-sleeved, long-skirted violet robes with a tall, crooked hat. (Though I will point out that the neckline was very low-cut and that the material clung to her like a second skin.) But to my eyes, she was hideous. Her nails were black and sharp, not unlike claws, and her carnivore teeth were as sharp as needles. Not to mention the absolutely ballistic glaze in her eyes. _

_Without me even saying so, Splicer went up into bright light and lept into my hand in his Sledgehammer-Mode. I could hear his whisper in my head as I estimated how I would attack._

_**"You ready?"**_

_"I should be asking you that."_

_That's all I said before I slung him down right at Melanie's head._

_And he missed._

_I don't mean that I aim was off or that he shifted his weight and turned in the other direction. I mean that right when Splicer was about to collide with Melanie's face, she just disappeared. In the blink of an eye. Splicer hit the tiles of the floor with a thundering boom, sending several large chunks of the tiles flying._

_"Where did she go?" Splicer and I said at the exact same time._

_The answer came three seconds later when a silky-soft hand pressed hard between my shoulder blades and sent me falling over the edge of the basin-like hole in the roof._

_I don't know how at all, but in the five seconds that I was falling through the air, Splicer managed to yell my name, transform back into his Human Form, and catch me in his arms bridal-style. He set me down on my feet as we both looked up to the hole's edge above._

_Sure enough, Melanie just stood there, giving us both a sharp-toothed smirk. Her hip was jutted out to an impossible length with her palm cupping it. She tossed a stray piece of silky hair over her shoulder with perfect grace as she remarked, "Not bad. You have good aim. You do well with moving targets?"_

_"I do better with big ones," I responded. "So this shouldn't be hard." Splicer was still holding me close to him and I could feel him trying not to laugh._

_Melanie frowned at that, like that was the first insult she'd ever had in her entire life (an insult about her body weight, at that), but the frown was gone just as quickly as it had appeared and was replaced by its former sharp-toothed smirk. "That's a sharp tongue for such a small girl. I like sharp tongues. They're good ingredients for potions."_

_"If you want it, come and get it," I told her. I pulled away from Splicer and the two of us took on our defense stances. Me with my legs apart and my arms bent inward. Him with his body turned, his legs bent and apart and his arms held out with his hands in fist._

_Our moment of preparation was short-lived. I blinked, and Melanie was gone from her spot on the hole's edge without a trace. Me and Splicer went back-to-back at once, eyes darting back and forth to spot any sign of our target. Several long moments of this and we saw nothing. The only thing I could hear was my heart pounding against my ribs._

_"I think I will."_

_Splicer and I turned around just in time to see Melanie hovering over the opposite side of the cauldron's brim, the smoke parted like a curtain so that we could see her clearly. She brought her hands by her hips and pushed them forward. A gust of wind so impossibly strong it could've blown a brick house off its frame (the cauldron was blocking most of it, so Splicer and I managed to stay on our feet) tore through the air. The cauldron whined in protest but tipped over eventually._

_The potion inside the cauldron poured out of its container like a rapid. It was a blinding cyan color swimming with gold and green particles. The sweet and sour smell that erupted from it was almost staggering. I braced myself for the impact, but the attempt ended up futile. Once again unnecessarily protecting me from harm, Splicer wrapped his arms around my middle and turned his back to the oncoming wave. And then it hit us._

_That stuff was like liquid fire. It was scalding to my skin and damaging to my nerves. I squeezed my eyelids and lips shut as hard as I possibly could to avoid any permanent damage. But the potion filled my ears and set them ablaze (not literally) and my hearing immediately went fuzzy and thick. I dug my fingernails hard into Splicer's shoulder-blades on instinct. I think Splicer got the worst of it, though. With his body covering mine almost entirely, and his scarf and vest doing almost nothing to cover his skin, I was pretty sure he had it a lot worse than I did. Either way, he just held me tighter._

_The surge was over in a few seconds. The blast sent us crashing into the wall of the room. As you might have guessed, Splicer managed to spin me around so that he collided with the wall and I didn't. We stayed there for a short time, giving our nerves time to heal and our strength to return. I opened my eyes, fearing the worst-boils, exposed bones, skin burnt away like paper-but found that the liquid had simply burned our skin so that it was tender and red. I guessed the potion wasn't entirely complete._

_Melanie stood atop of the fallen, watching the scene in front of her with absolute satisfaction. "How cute."_

_Splicer was just struggling to pull me up to my feet when a blast of shocking power hit the wall behind us. We both cried out as the force sent us flying through the air, the bright red sparks that hit our already-tender skin inflamed with pain. Splicer lost his grip on me and we both went rolling onto the tiles roughly._

_"Splicer, Sledgehammer, quick!" I told him once I got the cough in my throat out._

_In the blink of an eye, he was in my hand as his Sledgehammer self, his weight familiar in my arm. _

_I heard her voice behind me, then, like the smallest hand on a clock moving forward. _"Fox vixen vulpes mixon" _was what she said. Instinctively, I span around with Splicer extended. Splicer hit Melanie's body, but she was so close that only his steel staff his her waist with hard force but no incredible impact. There was another murmur of a mantra, and Melanie was gone. That was something to go on, at least, but I'd have to be close enough to hear it. _

"Fox vixen vulpes mixon."

_Before I can even decide where her voice has come from, a blast of blazing hot power hits the underside of the gargantuan cauldron. It went flying in my direction and I dodged it before I could be crushed. The cauldron hit the floor with a thundering force that made my very teeth tremble. Just before she disappeared again, I could see a flicker of Melanie's face. She seemed to be amused but a bit annoyed at the same time. _

_I had just analyzed this when Melanie hit me with another spell right below my collarbone._

_The spell didn't come out in a thundering explosion as you would have thought. Instead, it was small, its explosion the size of a soccer ball. But it hurt _so bad_. It was like a billion needles were piercing my skin at the same time, as far as they could go. I let out a yelp and brought my hand to the burnt skin carefully. I pulled it back to find it coated in blood and lymphatic fluid. I tried to note to make sure she didn't hit me there again._

_**"Juliette! Are you OK?" **__Splicer's worried voice broke through my pained silence._

_"I'm fine," I managed to say. Which wasn't an absolute lie, since my burn had resolved to a steady (but still very painful) throb. _

"Fox vixen vulpes mixon."

_Her voice came from behind me, up in the air and a bit to the left. I span around and slung Splicer as hard as I possibly could. Splicer's metal head pounded into Melanie's stomach, causing her to reel back. Her face turned from amused to angry faster than a traffic light. I'm pretty sure the force of the blow did some internal damage to her organs, maybe even chipped her spine a bit._

_She grabbed Slicer from her stomach and curved her arm back before slinging Splicer at me like a boomerang._

_His head collided with the side of my shoulder. I let out another exclamation of pain. I'm pretty sure the blow damaged my deltoid, as well as cracked by bones. It may have slightly dislocated my shoulder, for all I knew._

_**"I didn't hurt you, did I?"**_

_"No," I lied again. Luckily, she hit my right arm and not my left, so I'd still be able to use Splicer...just with a tad bit more difficulty. _

_Just as I said that, Melanie whispered her mantra once more and hit me with another spell. This time, she wasn't as merciful. The spell hit my left thigh, and cut right down to the bone. Blood splattered onto the tiles and I bit my lip so hard even more blood oozed onto my tongue. _

"Fox vixen vulpes mixon."

_Before I could fully recover from the last attack, another spell hit me right across my stomach._

_This one was a real blow. The spell cut right through my skin from my left hip to my right ribcage. Blood shot from the wound in a scarlet fountain. I yelled out, not being able to keep it in. I soon found myself holding an arm in front of my wound just to keep my intestines inside of my body. _

_**"Juliette, we have to stop. You're too hurt to go on!"**_

_Now, don't get me wrong, I was in a lot of pain. A ton of pain. A gargantuan amount of agony. But no way was I about to give up now. I wasn't about to give up one year, thousands of wounds, and 99 Kishin souls just because of a stupid witch. She could have blasted my legs off and I would have continued to fight._

_"No. I'm not just going to give up everything we've worked for just because I'm hurt. This is about you, not me."_

_**"Forget about me! I'm not the one about to die here!"**_

_"No means no, Splicer. We're not leavi-"_

_And at that exact moment, a spell went right through my chest._

_I don't know why, but it didn't hurt. I guess I was just in too much shock of a beam of bright purple power blasting through my flesh for the actual pain to register. I heard a splatter sound behind me. I guess a gallon of my blood just hit the floor. I wasn't aware of a lot of things at that point. I wasn't aware that Splicer was practically screaming my name, or that he'd slipped from my grasp and landed on the floor. I wasn't even aware that I had been pushed back from the force of the blow and right into my own pool of blood. _

_My vision was going dark. The edges of my vision went black, then several blots of black took over my sight. In those moments of dull pain and sure death, everything on my brain began to shut down. I couldn't identify anything. Was that the sky up above me? Or was it the ground below me? Was it purple, or was it gray? Were those stars or fireflies?_

_I saw something blue enter my vision then. No, not blue, green. No, not green, red! Red and...yellow. Not bright yellow, like a canary, but the yellow of fields of wheat. I heard something__—no, someone__—screaming my name. What was my name, again?_

_"Juliette! JULIETTE!"_

_Oh, right._

_"Splicer?" I knew who he was. He was my best friend, my Weapon, my brotherly figure. He'd been with me for a year, we went to school together. Our dorms were side-by-side. He teased me a lot and I teased him back. He had a scar under his ear and a freckle on his nose and he had a spot of gray in his right eye. He knew that I was afraid of the dark, knew that I was a Kishin-human hybrid, knew me and knew who I was, so why was I having such a hard time remembering his very name?_

_"Juliette...hold on...I'm getting you out of here..."_

_I felt something heavy wind underneath my arms and legs. lifting me into the air. Or was I being brought down? How did gravity work again?_

_"Oh, did you really have to interrupt now?" What was her name again, the one that was whining as if someone had ruined her precious little fun? Felony...Ebony...Merrily...Melanie, that's it! Melanie! Oh. Melanie. The one who just shot me with a spell. Was that her, standing so far away? Or was that just another blur in my vision, standing right in front of me?_

_"WHAT THE FRICK IS WRONG WITH YOU? THIS ISN'T SOME STUPID GAME! SHE'S DYING! BECAUSE OF YOU, MY MEISTER IS DYING!"_

_Was he yelling, or whispering? Are my ears hurting, or tickling? _

_"Duh. That was the point of hitting her with a Black-Blood-Destroyer spell, ya dot. So she would die. I bet she can't even tell who you are anymore."_

_Was that what hit me? A Black-Blood Destroyer spell? Was my blood Black? I think it is. It may not be. It could be green, or blue. Or maybe yellow.  
_

_"I have to hand it to her, though. Put up a good fight. Kind of annoying, really, how much pain she could take. It's a wonder how she held her tongue."_

_Two amber orbs appeared in front of me. (I was positive they're in front of me. I could almost touch them. I guess the shock was finally wearing off.) Then, Melanie's silky voice, just as close as those eyes, spoke, "Speaking of which, I think we had a deal that I would take that if I won-"_

_CRUNCH_

_Though my still-blackening vision cannot assure it, I was pretty sure Splicer just gave Melanie a hard punch right in the jaw. She flew out of my view, hissing in pain._

_"Don't. You. Freaking. Touch her."_

_I could almost feel the glare Melanie's giving Splicer then. It almost hurts, like a poisonous snake bite. "I've had enough of you stupid Weapons. Always doing whatever it takes for their Meisters that don't do anything for them whatsoever. I'm doing you a favor."_

_I was only barely aware that Splicer was suddenly lurching me to the side as hard and as fast as he could. I tried to get my voice to work, to ask him what he was doing, but before I could..._

"Fox vixen vulpes mixon."

_With those four simple, cruel, dark words that would haunt me for the rest of my life, Melanie sent a spell right through Splicer's chest._

_In that split second, all effects of my own spell vanished, replaced by cold, hard, reality. But the reality mixed with shock. My brain was yelling at me, saying, _What are you doing? HELP HIM! _But I couldn't bring myself to move. I just...stared..._

_I knew at once that it wasn't what she hit me with. This spell wasn't purple and bright. It didn't shimmer with power or move with the speed of a bird. This spell was icy black and hauntingly dark. It had no light whatsoever. It was as if it were shadow itself. It didn't even move. It just appeared through Splicer in the blink of an eye._

_I felt something warm and wet splatter my skin. It took me a split second to register that Splicer's blood had hit my face._

_And speaking of faces..._

_...The look on Splicer's hurt me worse than the curse._

_His eyes were wide and blank, staring down at the ever-present curse that was still protruding from his chest. His lips were parted in shock. Every inch of his skin had gone stark white._

_A few moments later, the spell disappeared. It left this big, empty, bloody hole in the middle of his chest. Crimson blood had made a practical lake on the floor around us, mixed with black from my own blood. _

_Splicer's eyes flickered up to mine for those last few moments. Wheat locked with silver. I saw so many silent pleads he was giving me just through looking at me. Pleads of me to understand, pleads for me not to worry, pleads for me to get out of the house while I still could. His hand reached out to me, pale and trembling._

_And then, his lifeless body hit the floor._

_I just sat there for a moment, staring at the body of my best friend. His arms were frozen and stiff at his sides. His legs were slightly splayed out, as if he had been blasted away. The hole in his chest went from his collar bone to his navel. Crimson blood continued to soak his skin and clothes. His yellow eyes, framed with speckles of his own blood, stared up at the night sky blankly._

_"Splicer...?"_

_I didn't realize that I was reaching out to him until I saw my hand. My slender fingers and pale skin was drenched and dripping with blood. Not my blood, Splicer's. Red and warm and lifeless. It wasn't just my hands. My face, my legs and my clothes were drenched as well, black and red. The slightest movement I made sent ripples through the lake of blood I was kneeling in._

_"Splicer? D-don't move, I...I'm going to get you out of here, and Lord Death will help you...you're going to be...fine..."_

_No matter how many words of reassurance I said, I knew what was really happening._

_Splicer was dead._

_My Weapon was dead._

_My best friend was dead._

_In my paralyzed shock, I heard Melanie's laughter behind me, cold, dark, and cruel. I could see her smiling reflection in the blood._

_"See what you did now? You're so pathetic."_

_Her next words came from right behind me, and I knew she had teleported again. I could see her closer in the reflection now, just a few mere inches from my neck. Her sickly warm breath tickled my skin._

_"Now, be a good girl and turn around. I need that tongue of yours before it gets soi-"_

_SCRITCH_

_Melanie's face of disgusting smugness changed to one of shock faster than the speed of light._

_My fingernails were dripping with her cold blood. Her face now had four ragged, bloody incisions slashed across it, the skin jagged and torn. Trickles of blood were running down her cheeks and neck, some droplets dripping off to fall in and mix with the already-present blood that soaked the tiles._

_Slowly, she brings one of her black-clawed hands up to her face. She touches one of the harsh slashes, winces in pain, and pulls it back. A single drop of scarlet runs down her finger, almost like a tear._

_"My face...My beautiful face, you...You ruined it-!"_

_In answer, I sent my fist into her nose with a sickening crunch._

_Melanie fell back from the force, shrieking in pain and worry for her 'beautiful face.' More blood spewed from the new wound. She hit the floor with a wet thud, writhing in pain. The more she writhed, the more the endless amount of blood stained and soaked her violet robes until you could barely see the color anymore._

_I took one step forward. The blood rippled beneath me._

_With one hand pressed to her nose to stop the bleeding, Melanie reached out a trembling hand, stained crimson, to stop me. She looked so afraid, so disgustingly afraid, I hated it. I hated it so much. But I also loved it. I _relished _it. I relished the fear in her eyes, mixing in with the salty tears that were spilling down her cheeks into her open wounds. "No...No, please...don't!"_

_I killed her._

_I killed Melanie the Witch with my bare hands._

_I still don't remember how I did it. Which is probably a good thing, considering it, too, probably would have given me nightmares. I do remember some things, though. Melanie's agonized, earsplitting screams, quickly turning to gurgles as blood filled her throat and nostrils. The ripping and tearing of skin and bone, oddly satisfying to me. And then, the fact that it all seemed to happen so quickly. Like, one second, I had just just come down on her, and the next, I was still clawing at her lifeless body._

_And then I felt something heavy and warm drop down on my shoulders._

_My fingers, now soaked in so much blood that I had steady streams running down my ivory skin, lifted up to whatever it was, not knowing what to expect. But I didn't expect soft, velvety material, warm and comforting against my cold, trembling body. I couldn't tell if it was a cloak or a blanket._

_Something else came down on my right shoulder, then. Large, hard, smooth and somewhat gritty to the touch. A hand, snow-white and impossibly big. For a human._

_"It's over, Juliette," Lord Death told me. His voice, usually cheery and encouraging, was heavy with understanding and worry. "You can stop now."_

* * *

_The next few weeks were torture for me. _

_For one thing, it seemed that every single person at the Academy, even those who had treated me on some level of kindness, were trampling over each other just to get out of my path. They darted into open doors, pressed themselves to walls, and hid themselves behind open books. No one glared at me in hatred. Rather, they gave me long looks of immense worry or absolute fear. Whispers had become so common that they were practically atoms: every place, every time, every person._

_"Is that her?"_

_"Yeah. She's part-Kishin, I think."_

_"I heard they found her in a lake of blood. Melanie and Splicer were dead as door-nails when they got there."_

_"Did she really kill Melanie?"_

_"Yeah, she did. With her bare hands, I heard."_

_"How do you kill a witch with your bare hands? She must be insane."_

_"Must be. Melanie was nothing more than a bloody skeleton when they got there."_

_"Did she kill Splicer, too?"_

_"I don't think so. She and Splicer were really close."_

_The second thing, which was the most hard to deal with, was Splicer's death. Lord Death and I were the only notable people at the funeral. Lord Death, for being Splicer's headmaster, and me for being his Meister and dear friend. Splicer's parents had died ten years back, and everyone else in his family were either missing or dead. Lord Death asked me if I wanted to say some things at the funeral. I said yes, and prepared a testimony, but the second Lord Death asked me to step forward to give it, almost every single person there were walking away hurriedly. The only people who stayed were Lord Death and his friends. _

_And a third thing, which might be considered the same thing as the second thing, was the emptiness I felt after Splicer was gone. Four times, I was late for class because I slept in, with Splicer no longer around to bust my door open at six in the morning with a grin on his face as he said, "Wakey, wakey, eggs n' bacey!" I often found myself asking Splicer questions and sharing jokes, only to turn around and remember he wasn't there anymore. I found myself sitting on my bed during free time, as opposed to going somewhere in the city like we used to. And, most importantly__—for some unexplainable reason that I don't know__—the fact that when I woke up screaming in the middle of the night, there was no one there to comfort me._

_I couldn't take it anymore._

_I quit the Academy._

_I half-expected Lord Death to try and persuade or beg me in some way to stay at the Academy and continue my lessons, but when I told him that I wished to leave, he simply said that he understood. I was out by the end of the day._

_What really threw me for a whirl was how much Lord Death took care of me even after I left. He set me up with my own house. A red-framed, black-shingle-roofed, white-painted sort of cottage that severely leaned to one side, as if a storm had tried to blow it down but failed. However, the rooms were perfectly straight and perfectly tidy, and my belongings, along with a few other pieces of furniture of my taste, were there when I arrived. It was placed in the middle of a large, basin-like island island with cliff-like sides that stretched fifty feet high. There was no way to find it by plane or boat, and if I wanted to leave for any reason, there was a door hidden by a couple of boulders that took me wherever I pleased if I just said the name of the location. _

_Along with that, Lord Death sent me eight hundred dollars a week, as I was unemployed and unlikely to find a job. Any trouble, and I just had to call._

_I was alone on that island for a very, very long time..._

* * *

_I can't tell exactly how much later it happened, but one day, as I was on top of my bed, sowing up a tear on the quilt with a pin and needle, I heard someone ring the door._

_I wasn't surprised when I saw Lord Death in front of me. He visited me almost daily, whenever he had any free time. (Apparently, the island that my house resided on was connected to his Soul, somehow, so he could visit me without causing the world to end.) He gave me another one of his invisible smiles and waved one of his large hands in greeting. "Good morning, Juliette!"_

_"Good morning," I greeted with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. "Want some tea? Hot chocolate?"_

_"Actually, this visit isn't about me, today," Lord Death explained. Before I could ask what he meant, his head turned downwards and he said, somewhat softly, "It's alright, sweetie. You can come out now."_

_It's a wonder how I didn't see the little girl hiding behind Lord Death's skinny form before. She couldn't be older than four, and when my eyes fell on her, she blushed and tried to hide behind Lord Death's crooked body once more. She was quite possibly the most beautiful little girl I've ever seen. Her skin was smooth and only lightly pecked by the sun. Her features remarkably reminded me of cherry blossoms. Her hair was silky smooth, a bright carnation color that shined even brighter in the sunlight. Her hair fell a bit past her shoulders, and her bangs were pulled from her face with purple clips. Her eyes were a lovely amaranth hue, big and innocent and adorable. What I noticed about them was that other than the their pretty color, her irises were lined with ruby-and-cerise, petal-like Brushfield spots. Her pale blue sundress fluttered in the ocean breeze that swept over the grass. But I also noticed something else: she seemed very weak to me, very tired, in a sense. Her skin was slightly sallow and her eyes had slight bags under them._

_"Juliette, this is Rosamunde," Lord Death told me kindly. "Rosamunde, this is Juliette."_

_Rosamunde paused before extending one of her small hands in my direction. I complied by taking it. I expected her to shake my hand, or something like that, but she didn't. She just held it._

_The three of us walked into the living room and sat down. Lord Death told me of what had happened to Rosamunde: Her parents were killed by Kishin and, in the fight, her own Soul had been...uh...chipped, or something like that. _

_I'll try to explain the situation as best as I can. Because Rosamunde's Soul had been damaged so much, her Wavelengths had been damaged as well. In fact, her Wavelengths had no rhythm anymore. It's like someone trying to play an instrument but without any notes. Even my Soul, which is like an always-exploding grenade, has a rhythm. Lord Death explained that because Rosamunde had no one else to go to, and because she was so weak now, she needed someone who could take care of her, as well as someone whose Wavelengths were compatible._

_In other words, Lord Death wanted me to take care of her._

_It's hard to understand, but somehow Me and Rosamunde's Wavelengths are compatible. Rosamunde's Soul is so weak and mine is so powerful that if we were to be partnered together, her Soul would be able to absorb some of the power that mine released. Something along the lines of that._

_Lord Death also told me that it would probably be a good idea to also have the two of us hunt Kishin together, for extra training. So, in a way, it would be like working for the DWMA without actually attending it. _

_I didn't have to do it, but I did._

_Lord Death thanked me and, with a few exchanged words, he went on his way. _

_Rosamunde and I talked a bit after that. She told me what she could and couldn't do, what she liked and didn't like, things like that. I noticed that as we were talking, she already seemed to be taking in some of my Soul's energy. Her skin was beginning to fill out and her bags were vanishing._

_Eventually, night fell, and the two of us went to bed. I have no idea how, but Lord Death managed to get all of Rosamunde's stuff there the moment I agreed to take care of her. _

_But then, three hours later..._

_"Juliette?"_

_My eyes fluttered open. With a groan, I pulled over in bed and squinted in the darkness to see who was standing in the doorway. I could just make out Rosamunde's feeble shape in the doorway, half-hidden behind the door. She looked very shaken, as if something had just jumped out from behind a corner and scared her._

_"I...I had a nightmare..."_

_At first, I squinted my eyes at her, wondering why on earth she had come to me, a person she had just met, when she had a nightmare. But I guess I was the only one she _could_ come to. At first, I thought about just telling her to go back to sleep, or to say that it was just a bad dream and meant nothing. But in the end, I ended up scooting back into the wall and lifting up the quilts._

_She paused only for a second before hurriedly tip-toeing over and crawling in next to me. She stared up at the ceiling for a long moment. Eventually, I just closed my eyes._

_"Why were you alone?"_

_My eyes opened once more to give her a look of curiosity. Her big cerise eyes had turned to look at me._

_"What do you mean?"_

_"There's no one around here. Why?"_

_"I...lost someone important to me a while ago. I don't like being around people now."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"...I lost someone important to me, too. Two someones. I miss them."_

_"I know...I'm sorry."_

_"It's OK. You miss your someone too, don't you?"_

_"...Yeah. I do."_

_"I'm sorry."_

_"It's OK."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"...They're watching us, aren't they?"_

_"They are. Somewhere, somehow."_

_"Do you think they try to protect us?"_

_"I'm sure they do. But I don't know if they always can. They can only do so much."_

_"Oh..."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"...I'll protect you, if you protect me, OK?"_

_"...OK."_

* * *

"Rosamunde, Chakram-Mode, NOW!"

"Right!" I hear her respond from behind me. I hear the loud whir of her Transforming, see the flash of Alice-blue light coming from behind me, and hold out my hand to catch her. She lands in my grasp easily. Rosamunde's weapon form consists of a ring of pink steel, with a rod across the middle for me to grip covered in purple-and-green straps. Eight razor-sharp steel blades stick out from the outside of the ring, shining in the tiniest light.

Just as Shizāoni kneels down in prepare of a pounce, I sling Rosamunde in his direction. It seems that his eyes and mouth are the only things not made of blades, so I aim there. Rosamunde makes a good slice across his left eye, curves in the air, and does the same to the right.

Blood spurts out of the Evil Human's eyes at once. It howls and roars in pain, rearing back on its hind legs. Rosamunde curves back in the air and flies back into my hand.

Eventually, Shizāoni stops kicking and roaring, staying as still as possible with quick, quiet breaths.

_It's blind now, but it can still hear me, _I think to myself.

Probably more advanced now, too, if Evil Humans also apply to the 'Lose-One-Sense-Enhance-Another' theory. I try to make my breaths as slow and quiet as possible. Shizāoni remains still as can be, huffing slowly.

As slowly as possible, I bring Rosamunde back again-

Shizāoni roars and I curse silently as he charges at us in a very bull-like manner.

**"Chakram-Blade Mode?" **Rosamunde asks quickly.

"Chakram-Blade Mode!" I agree.

With a soft 'shlick' of moving metal, all of Rosamunde's blades come together to form a single, wicked blade.

Shizāoni leaps high into the air, razor skin shining in the bright moonlight. With his sharp fangs bared, he comes down on us, and I hold out Rosamunde in his direction.

_SHUNK_

As he falls down through the air, Shizāoni's bare head impales itself on Rosamunde's blades, from just behind his front teeth to inches behind his scissor-blade ears. In just a split second, Shizāoni's form curls in on itself, blades and fangs dissolving away into black ribbons. As I pull Rosamunde back, the Kishin Egg Soul appears before us, bright red and framed with darker hexigonal plates, like honeycombs.

I let Rosamunde switch back into her normal form. She lands on her feet with a small thud. She's seven years old now. She had cut her hair several weeks before now. It was now somewhat choppy, and she had two bangs on either side of her face that were several inches longer than the rest of her hair, tied with gray bands near the ends. She still favored dresses, though. The white one she wore now had long, loose sleeves, a V-neck, and a knee-length hem. A purple shirt was underneath the dress, covering the space left by the V-neck. The neckline, cuffs, and hem were designed in bands of purple and pink zig-zag-triangle patterns. Dark purple Mary Janes with gold buttons cover her feet and white frilly socks that stopped mid-calf. She rocks on her heels as she dusted off the front of her dress. "That was easy."

I pluck the Kishin Egg Soul from the air and hand it out to her, putting on my Kawaii-Face, with a sweet, open-mouthed smile and sparkling eyes*. "Here ya go."

"Thank ya," she says as she takes it from my hand. She reaches into the almost invisible pockets of her dress and pulls out a fairly large glass jar. She stuffs the Kishin Egg Soul inside and screws on the lid. As she observes the flickering red light, she asks, "How many do we have now?"

"Let's see..." I tick off my fingers, thicking hard. "Two."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...hundred and forty-seven!"

"Yay!" Rosamunde and I high-five in victory. As Rosamunde stuffs the jar back into her pocket, I hold out my arm for her. She latches her hands onto it and begins to swing on it back and forth. "We should celebrate!"

"We should. What do ya wanna do?"

"Get another!"

"I like your style, kid."

* * *

**So. Yeah. There you go.**

***The Kawaii Face is basically just the face of the character in the Happy Jump app.**

**Any thoughts, complaints, or compliments are accepted eagerly. If I missed something in the anime, pleeeeease point it out.**

**Anywho, until next time.**

**~LunarisAmor**


	2. Juliette Black's Return to the DWMA? P2

**Fun fact #1: Juliette is seventeen years old, as of yet.**

YukiGirl21: **Thanks for the first review :) I'm anticipating your next one.**

Guest: **Thank you :)**

* * *

"Julie! Julie! Julie!"

"Wassa matter?" I ask in return as Rosamunde comes running up to me like a little fawn. I push the brownie-batter-filled pan into the black oven's top rack and close the door with a loud creak, taking the self-made green cooking mitts off of my warmed hands.

Rosamunde holds up three differently-sized letters up to me with her small hands. I take them and stare at the first one's Times New Roman words.

I gasp in alarm, bringing a hand to my mouth. "Oh, _no_!"

"What's wrong?"

"I was late for my _Mattaku Nai Souruītā _subscription payment! Darn it, not again..."

"No, that's not the one I wanted you to see. This is."

She reaches up and pulls the letter behind the one I'm looking at into my view. This one really catches my attention. The writing in black and slightly swirly, standing out against the yellowed paper, and the stamp is a very familiar, three-holed, three-spiked skull. I look at the words scrawled across the white paper.

JULIETTE BLACK & ROSAMUNDE VOELKES

THE COTTAGE ON THE ISLAND

53 MILES OFF THE COAST OF ICELAND

And then, in the corner:

LORD DEATH

DEATH WEAPON MEISTER ACADEMY

DEATH CITY, NEVADA

I crinkle my black eyebrows in confusion as I rip open the envelope with my thumb and pull out the paper inside. As expected, the writing style is absolutely identical.

_Dearest Juliette,_

_Wassup, wassup, wassup?_

_I know you're wondering why I'm sending you this letter when I could just visit you myself and talk to you in person. But things are busy here at the DWMA, and I have a lot on my plate right now._

_The reason I am sending you this letter concerns you very much. _

_I know it has been a very long time since your time here at the DWMA, but we are in need of your assistance on a very special mission. An Evil Human by the name of Ukete has been taking the souls of over seventy humans. We have already sent out four of our best Meister-Weapon pairs and none have been able to successfully defeat him as of yet. Your skills-both personal and brought with Rosamunde-are requested for this special assignment._

_This is not an order. This is simply a request that you can say yes or no to. _

_If your answer is no, please send a reply back through the door. I'll have someone pick it up for me._

_If your answer is yes, please come to the DWMA as soon as possible. _

_The choice is yours._

_Sincerely, Lord Death_

_P.S. Please bring Rosamunde with you if you decide to come. Weapons and Meisters need to be together for assignments, after all._

_P.P.S. Don't be worried if the door doesn't take you straight to my Death Room. It's made that way._

_P.P.P.S. I apologize for your _Mattaku Nai Souruītā _subscription cancellation. I forgot to send your payment through to the company. I'll fix it as soon as possible._

Rosamunde reads the letter over my shoulder with curious eyes, her slim arms around my neck so that she can hang high enough to see it. When we both finish, she looks at me expectantly. "Are we gonna go?"

Honestly, I'm not sure if I want to. There's the very likely chance that the prejudice from so long ago will still be around. Then, the remembrance of Splicer still hanging around. And what if Rosamunde doesn't take the DWMA well? What if she's scared.

Then again, I'll also be very guilty it Ukete isn't taken care of. He could be killing someone right now and it'd technically be my fault.

I turn my eyes to an anxious Rosamunde. "Do _you_ wanna go?"

"Sure. I've always wanted to see what the DWMA looked like, and it'd be nice to get out of here for something other than hunting, y'know?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. We'll go."

"When?"

"Well, the letter says 'as soon as possible', so if you're ready, we can go now."

"I'm ready!"

"_Vamos_, let's go!" I set her down on her feet and the two of us dash for the door, slamming it behind us as we leave.

We enter the house only fifteen seconds later, however. "I should probably take care of the brownies first," I say as I walk back into the kitchen and fit my green cooking mitts on again.

"Take your time," Rosamunde says as she sits at the kitchen table, swinging her legs over the side of her chair.

* * *

About forty-five minutes later, we step down into the dusty desert sands.

I can see Death City ahead, so far away that from top to bottom, it's about the size of my middle-fingertip-to-wrist length. It hasn't changed a bit. It has the exact same structure from so long ago, down to the very last brick. Same candles, same red spikes, same skulls. So very much the same, just older.

"Did we have to show up so far away?" Rosamunde sighs. A drop of sweat has appeared at her temple, not only from the blazing sun but also from the fact that we have a good number of miles to make before we actually reach the city.

"Lord Death did warn us in the letter," I say with a sigh. "Anyway, just hop on."

I kneel down so that she can climb onto my back once more. She sighs but does so, at least grateful that she won't have to walk. I hike her up and begin to walk us in the direction of the city, taking a deep breath in preparation.

* * *

1 HOUR LATER

I trudge up the final step into Death City, my back and spine as rigid as rock. Rosamunde steps down from my back to give me some slack, wiping the sweat from her brow with the long sleeve of her dress. I stretch my back out, feeling it crackle satisfyingly. My skin is sleek with sweat, especially at my temples and collarbone.

"Uh...Julie?"

"Hm?"

"What's that?"

I look up to see what she's pointing at. At the top of one of the huge red spikes of the city, about thirty feet away and sixty feet above, I can see a gray-and-blue figure. Another, taller figure is standing a few feet behind it, white and black. The gray-and-blue figure seems to be yelling out nonsense to the wind whilst the other tries to calm him/her down.

"Uh...a bird?"

"A bit big for a bird, don't cha think? Seems more like a blue monkey."

"Maybe. But I don't think monkeys can talk..."

Rosamunde pauses just a moment before standing still, her head lifted upwards. "Do you hear that?"

I listen. I can hear a sound, or a voice, more like. It sounds like a steadily-growing whisper, muffled in the wind. It kinda sounds like "Yaaaaa..."

I look up in the direction of the voice and jump. The blue-and-gray figure is falling right down to us, growing bigger and bigger.

"...aaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA...!"

I quickly pull Rosamunde away just as the figure comes down in front of us. "Back it up!"

"...AAAAAAAHOOOO!"

I look to see who it is. As I suspected, it's a boy, about sixteen or so. For a sudden moment, I realize that he reminds me of Splicer, in a way. The boy's skin tone is almost the same color as his, his muscular frame is similar, and his hair is just as spiky. But, in the same way, he looks very different from Splicer. His hair is aqua blue, and his eyes are a dark green color. He's dressed oddly, in a black funnel-necked shirt with a stripe of rivets running up the side. White-topped, black-bottomed pants lined with the same rivets are accompanied. His shoes are rather large, with black heels and metal, star-designed toes. He has two sort of gray gauntlets on his hands. What I notice most is the pale star on his right bicep. At first, I think it's a sort of odd scar, but on closer inspection, I see it's a tattoo.

He looks me up and down, then does the same to Rosamunde. His face looks very furious and, at ear-splitting volume, he yells, "ARE YOU SERIOUS? _THIS_ IS WHO'S TAKING ON UKETE? IS THIS A JOKE? THE GREAT BLACK STAR COULD HANDLE UKETE WAY BETTER THAN _THIS _STUPID HYBRID!"

I don't respond. I just stare at him, then slowly smile.

Who I assume to be the black-and-white figure finally comes running up to who I assume is Black Star. She's a pretty, Japanese-looking girl, about seventeen years old, it seems. She's wearing a lemon chiffon-colored, sleeveless outfit with a slitted skirt and a bright yellow star on the right side of her chest. She has a dark brown scarf around her neck and a tight brown stocking on her right leg. She's wearing a sort of long riveted belt loosely around her waist. Her raven hair is pulled into a high ponytail with long bangs that compliments her large, indigo eyes nicely. She has gray and black arm sleeves starting just below her shoulders that disappear into two gray sweatbands on her wrists.

"I'm so sorry!" she tells me with a nervous smile. "He's just angry because we tried to take on Ukete and didn't win."

Black Star gives the girl a sharp glare and explodes, "I WAS THIS CLOSE TO TAKING CARE OF HIM, TSUBAKI!" He holds his index and thumb of his right hand an inch apart for emphasis. "THIS CLOSE! BUT NO! HE HAD TO WIMP OUT AND RUN AWAY JUST WHEN I WAS ABOUT TO WIN!"

As Black Star continues to rant angrily, the girl approaches us and extends a hand with a smile. "I'm Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, nice to meet you. This is Black Star. I'm sorry you have to meet him."

"I'm Rosamunde VOH-ELL-KEYS," Rosamunde shakes Tsubaki's larger hand with her smaller one with difficulty. Tsubaki giggles. Little thing has trouble pronouncing her own name. So cute. "This is Juliette Black. I call her Julie."

"It's a name," I give Tsubaki an army salute.

Tsubaki returns it, then frowns. Her indigo eyes dart from me to Rosamunde and stay there. She leans in to whisper in my ear. "Uh...Is she your Weapon?"

I nod with a smile. "Chakram. Top class. Hasn't let me down yet."

Black Star pops into the picture then, his small green pupils narrowed at the little girl who's poking at a little flower growing out of a crack in the pavement. "What is she, like, three?"

Rosamunde stops poking at the flower and looks up at Black Star with narrowed pink eyes. Too adorable. She stands up and takes three long steps and stand on tip-toe as tall as she can. "I'm seven!"

"And three-quarters," I put in. We share a little fist-bump.

Black Star scoffs and turns his back on us. "I can't believe I'm getting replaced by _this_."

"Neither can I. Who cares?" I laugh. I think I've gone a bit delirious in the past couple of years. I pull a pair of black Burberry Gucci sunglasses out of my pants pocket and slide them over my eyes. "C'mon, Rosie, we have a date with Death. Literally."

"Rad," she nods, pulling out her own pair of black sunglasses, and the two of us begin to walk towards the next set of steps with our hands in our pockets.

Black Star continues to gawk at us madly as we reach the top of the stairs. By the time we reach the top, he's charging up behind us, Tsubaki in tow. "I CARE! EVERYONE WHO KNOWS THE GREAT AND POWERFUL BLACK STAR CARES, YOU STUPID HYBRID!"

* * *

"So that's her?"

"Yeah. What's her name, again? Janet? Jean? Jeanette?"

"Juliette. Juliette, uh...Blue. Or Brown. Something like that."

"It's Juliette Black, you idiots."

"Oh yeah. Kishin, right?"

"Half-Kishin, I think."

"Didn't she kill her Weapon?"

"No. She killed the _Witch_ who killed her Weapon. With her bare hands..."

Well, this place hasn't changed whatsoever, has it?

I glance around at the people who pass by us, some in pairs of Meisters and Weapons. A few stand out to me: a mochoa-skinned, dreadlock-haired boy flanked by a pair of small blue-eyed twins. A boy with odd round glasses and horn-like black hair accompanied by a boy with Cyclops-goggles. Two girls, one with short pink hair and the other with long dark brown hair. Friends? Maybe. Enemies? Likely.

"This place sure is big," Rosamunde states as she looks around at the halls. I have her riding on my shoulders to have a better view over the heads of passing students.

"Eh. I've seen better."

"Really?"

"Psssh. No. This place is rad."

"Hey, you're Juliette, right?"

I turn around to see who's spoken. It's a girl, perhaps one, maybe two, years younger than me. Her dark emerald eyes are big and her ash blonde hair is pulled into two pigtails on either side of her head. She's dressed like a schoolgirl, in a white blouse, cream vest, green-and-white-striped tie, and a red-and-black plaid mini-skirt. Her shoes resemble short boots with multiple white straps and rivets. I can tell she's a straight-A student just by looking at her.

"It's a name," I tell her with a smile.

Maka smiles and nods and looks up at Rosamunde, an amused smile replacing her greeting one. "And you're Rosie, right?"

"My name's Rosamunde VOH-ELL-KEYS. Only Juliette calls me Rosie."

Translated from, _Only Juliette _is allowed _to call me Rosie._

"Right. Sorry. I'm Maka Albarn, Two-Star Meister." She holds out her hand in greeting, and I politely shake it. She holds it up higher for Rosamunde, who copies my action. "This is my Weapon, Soul Eater Evans."

I look over her shoulder to see the boy standing behind her. Probably Albino. White hair swept to one side and dark red eyes. Pointed teeth, too. He has a black hairband behind his bangs matching his black leather jacket. He's also wearing an orange T-shirt and light brown pants.

"Soul," he corrects Maka almost at once. "Don't call me Evans. It's not cool."

"Aye-aye, Captain," I salute to him. As Rosamunde copies my action, I look behind Soul to the other boy standing behind him. "And you are...?"

In answer, the boy squirms and slightly hides behind Maka. He has pale skin and choppy heliotrope hair, its ends sticking out at all angles. His eyes are big and dark blue-gray, with white pupils. He's very skinny and insecure-looking. He's dressed in a tight black dress-like robe. The cuffs are large and white, and the neckline is high.

"I'm C-Crona," he mutters uncomfortably.

"Cool name. Is it short for something?"

"...No..."

"Cooler."

"PSSH. THAT'S NOTHING."

Something big and black sprouts out of Crona's back, but not as big as I thought it'd be. It's probably as big as a beach ball, and it's very peculiar-looking. Its skin is black, slightly oilly-looking, and its face is nothing more than a white X with two round white eyes in each side-crook.

"MY NAME IS RAGNAROK," the thing boasts. It sticks one of its stubby fingers up Crona's nostrils. "MUCH BETTER THAN THIS LOSER CRONA!"

"Ragnarok, knock it off," Maka scolds the thing with a snap. Ragnarok blows a raspberry at her, its tongue popping out of nowhere, but stops messing with Crona. The lanky boy rubs his sore nose. Maka sighs and turns back to us. "Ragnarok is Crona's Weapon. Long story short, he lives in Crona's blood. And sorry for the rudeness, he does that a lot." Oh, so Crona has Black Blood, like me. That's cool.

"So he's basically Black Star as a Weapon?"

"How do you know Black Star?"

Rosamunde and I point down the hall in unison. You can just see a blue-haired head poking out from behind the nearby corner, green eyes glaring at us as another black-haired head glares down at him.

"Oh. Yeah." Maka sighs.

"Lord Death's waiting for you in the Death Room," Soul says exasperatedly. "You need us to show you the way?"

"Nah. I remember." I wave a hand at them dismissively. I pull at the air above my head, as if tipping a hat off to them. "See ya later, strangers."

"See 'ya round," Rosamunde also does the invisible hat tip-off as I begin to carry her down the hall. She begins to hum as we do so. "Hm-hm-hm. Hm-hm-hm. Hm-hm-hm, hm-hm-hm-hm..."

* * *

Several minutes later, I'm carrying Rosamunde through the archway-tunnel of red guillotines. I know for a fact her head is a hair's breath away from the blades, but I know she won't let herself be cut.

I raise my voice and call,

"Hey, Black Star. I was wondering. How many Stars are you?"

There's a grumbling, and Black Star swings down from one of the guillotines. He's upside down, dangling from his feet and glaring at us acidly. Tsubaki is sitting next to him, looking very annoyed.

"Two-Star," he snaps at us. I walk past him without a second glance. Rosamunde ducks to avoid him. He growls angrily and jumps down to his feet, quickly followed by a glaring Tsubaki. "Why are you asking?"

"You said you were the Great and Powerful Black Star, so I just assumed you were a Three-Star. Guess not~!"

"Wha-? ARE YOU INSULTING ME?"

"Noooo. I meh-beh crazy, but I'm not rude."

"But you're saying that Three-Star Meisters are the best?"

"Of course not. I'm probably not even a One-Star Meister."

"Then why would you demean yourself like that?"

"I didn't. I just asked if you were a Three-Star Meister."

"I WILL BE A THREE-STAR MEISTER! I'LL BE MORE THAN THAT! I'LL BE A GOD! I'VE ALREADY SURPASSED ALL THE OTHER GODS! I'LL RULE THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE AND NO ONE, NOT EVEN A STUPID KISHIN HYBRID LIKE YOU, WILL STOP ME!"

"42-42-564."

"YOU CAN TRY ALL YOU WANT BUT-Wait. What?"

As I step into the Death Room's mirror, I give Black Star a little wave. "See ya later, stranger."

"HEY, WAIT!"

But Rosamunde and I are already gone.

* * *

"Wassup, wassup, wassup?"

"Howdy," I answer Lord Death politely.

"How ya doin, Rosamunde?"

Rosamunde looks up from the piece of my raven hair she's braiding in her fingers, smiles, and waves. "I'm okay-dokay."

"Happy to hear that," Lord Death nods his crooked head. With a big white hand, he gestures over to his left. "There's someone I would like you both to meet."

I look over. Crouched behind the edge of the small stage, I can see three heads, two glaring at me in distrust. One with dark blonde hair and dark blue eyes, one with bright blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and one with black hair and bi-colored gold eyes.

"This is my son, Death the Kid, and his Weapons, Elizabeth 'Liz' and Patricia 'Patti' Thompson."

The girl with the bright blond hair stands up and waves at me excitedly. I can see her clearly now. She looks like a child's doll. Her blond hair is short and soft, her bright blue eyes shining joyfully. Her slightly sun-kissed skin is flushed pink at the cheeks from never-ending fits of laughter. She's wearing an odd gray-and-blue hat with bold white stitches atop her head. She's clad in a tight red knit belly top with a small white tie, puffy denim shorts, and black high-heeled boots. Rosamunde and I wave back energetically, but the dark-blonde-haired head pulls her back down next to her.

"Please excuse them," Death Lord chuckles awkwardly and turns to the three figures, round eyes narrowing. "Stand up and mind your manners!"

They huff and stand obediently. I can now see that, accompanying the blond-haired girl, is another, taller girl and a shorter, black-haired boy. The girl is dressed almost identically to the other girl, but instead of shorts, she's clad in denim jeans. Her hair is longer and her skin is slightly tanner. I think this one is Liz and the other is Patti. The boy, Kid, definitely has a look that stands out. His black hair, I now see, has three perfectly straight white lines on the right side. His bi-colored eyes are gold, darker around the pupils. He's dressed in a black suit, white squares around the shoulders and a Shinigami skull at the neck. He says nothing, he just glares at me.

"Right. Now, this is Juliette Black and her Weapon, Rosamunde Voelkes," Lord Death says politely.

"Howdy," Rosamunde and I greet politely.

The taller girl huffs and adverts her eyes, her fingers flicking in a wave. The shorter girl waves at us excitedly again. The boy just glares.

Then, the boy suddenly bursts into tears. He collapses onto his knees, sobbing hysterically with his fingers curled into pitiful claws. He falls forward, banging his fist against the floor. "Why? Why? It's so unfair! How can something so evil be so symmetrical!"

I look down at myself. I'm dressed in blue jeans and black Doc Martens. I have a studded belt on and two silver chains going from the front pockets to the back pockets. The top I have on is a knitted tee-shirt, with a black turtle neck, striped with white and black, longer in the back than in the front. I have a lime green, spaghetti strap, square-necked leather bodice over it. My hands are covered in two black leather, fingerless gloves. I had long ago styled my long, straight black hair to curl at the ends, with two pieces tied in the back with a Shinigami-skull-shaped clip. I guess that's symmetrical.

"Thank you. Didn't even realize it."

Kid looks up through bleary eyes to glare at me. He stands up and takes two steps closer to me, one hand in a fist and the other pointing at me rudely. "Don't take that as a compliment, Kishin." His bleary eyes sparkle and his hands raise in two thumbs-up. "But I'm going to have to give you kudos for perfection..."

"Anywho," Lord Death pulls Kid away with one big white hand. "Now onto more serious matters. We've confirmed that Ukete is hiding deep in the Grand Canyon, inside a cave at the lowest point. We've estimated that there are a total hundred-and-fifty-two Human Souls in there. That number will increase if we don't do anything."

I raise my hands above my head and lift Rosamunde from my shoulders, under her arms, setting her down next to me. "Lord Death, with all due respect, why am I here?"

"I thought that was obvious," Lord Death says as he cocks his head to the side. Kid is still whimpering behind him, and the blond girl is poking his head repeatedly, giggling. "I need you to take care of Ukete. I said so just now and in the letter."

"You also said you've sent four other Meister-Weapon pairs to take him on. You know just as much as I do that there are hundreds of other pairs here at the DWMA. So why did you ask someone outside the Academy to go instead?"

"_You_ know as much as _I_ do that you have abilities that none of the other Meisters or Weapons have. And more knowledge, too, of souls-turned-Kishin-Eggs. I believe Ukete is beyond any of my students' knowledge."

"We're standing right here," Liz speaks up from the right. Beside her, Kid is curled into a fetal position muttering about 'pure evil' and 'perfect symmetry' as Patti pokes him with a stick she must have had on her person at the time.

"Yes. Yes you are," Lord Death replies and turns back to me. "So. You're here. You got your Weapon with you. You haven't declined yet. Does that mean you accept?"

I stare at him, eyes half-lidded and lips set in a frown. Then, my face breaks out into a big smile and sparkling eyes. "Doh~! You know I can't say no to yooooou~!"

"Excellent!" Lord Death chirps. "We'll be watching from the mirror, so if anything goes wrong, we'll be there in a heartbeat. Good luck!"

"I'll certainly need it!" I chirp in reply. Rosamunde jumps onto my back and I turn on my heel, heading for the exit. "See ya later, strangers. You too, Black Star."

As I step through the portal-mirror leading out of the Death Room, I hear Black Star grumble under his breath.

"Stupid Kishin hybrid."

* * *

**There ya go. Also, YukiGirl21 has brought this up, and I should inform you guys that JULIETTE IS NOT ASURA'S DAUGHTER.**

**ASURA AND KID ARE BROTHERS, GUYS.**

**KID WOULD BE JULIETTE'S UNCLE.**

**EW.**

**That's it for now.**

**Full picture of cover image can be found here on deviantart:**

**art / Soul-Eater-OC-Fanfiction-Cover - 401903374**


	3. Juliette Black's Return to the DWMA? P3

**Fun fact #1: Juliette is 161 centimeters tall (5 feet, 5 inches)**

**xFosteRx: Here ya go~. Glad you're reading :)**

**Talyn Dains: Thanks! I look forward to reading them! **

**Hetomi: I will.**

* * *

JULIETTE'S P.O.V.

"...Thaaaaaat's pretty far."

The sun is bright overhead, panting repeatedly as it gives us a big, boastful smile. Each gust of wind lifts several tons of red dust in the air, making every breath hot and throat-irritating. (Why do I always wear knitted clothes whenever I go to the hottest places on earth?) I'm standing at the very edge of the Canyon, looking down. Six thousand feet below, I can see a Skobeloff river like a ribbon slapped onto the Gamboge ground.

_"Are we just gonna jump?"_ Rosamunde asks in her Weapon-Form. I don't know if she can see the height or not.

"Well, we can't fly, I doubt there's a ladder, and unless we can find an elevator, I think that's our only option. So. On three. Three."

I jump from the edge.

I fall through the air for roughly three minutes. The blowing dust air stings my eyes, and my stomach feels flip-floppy, but the hard gust of wind feels good on my sweaty skin.

About four seconds later, when the slope of the canyon finally starts to steepen, so I veeeery carefully and veeeeery precisely slam my feet into the rock. There's a jolt of force through my legs, but no pain. I skid down the rock, leaving a cloud of dust behind me as the pebbles bounce off of the carbon steel sides of my shoes. Finally, the ground becomes level and I stop just a foot in front of the river. And by 'stop', I mean that I trip over a large rock at the last second and fall flat of my face. Epic fail.

**"That was still awesome," **Rosamunde says.

"Thanks, baby girl."

I haul myself up and look around me at the surroundings. There's no cave in sight. All I can see is a blue-green river, two 6,000-feet-high walls of rock on either side of me, and the blue sky above. No cave. I reach into my pocket and take out the small mirror-like object given to me by Lord Death, about the size of my wrist-to-thumb length. There's a map on it, and I look at the symbols. The green dot represents me and the blue dot represents Rosamunde (we're joined together now to an aqua dot, since we're _right_ next to each other.) The black flecks represent just normal, human beings, but they're all at least a hundred miles away. I zoom in as close as I can get. There's us, the aqua dot, in front of the blue squiggle of the river. The dark green 'X' represents our target location, and we're supposed to be seven feet in front of it.

But I look up and there's no cave seven feet in front of me. I get a running start and jump to the other side, a good sixteen feet. I search the wall for a button or a switch, but find nothing.

**"Are we in the right place?" **Rosamunde asks.

"We should be," I look down at the mirror. We are standing RIGHT in front of the cave, so why can't I find it?

Huh.

What if we're on TOP of the cave?

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" I ask Rosamunde as I look over to the river.

**"I don't know. What are you thinkin'?"**

"I'm thinkin' we should go in the river, that's what I'm thinkin'."

**"I'm soooo thinkin' what you're thinkin'."**

"Let's do the thing we're thinkin'."

I step over to the river and jump in.

The cool waters of the river engulf me quickly. I can feel my tee-shirt, corset, and jeans soak through in a heartbeat. The dirt and dust embedded in my hair, clothes, and skin wash away. I let myself fall several feet before opening my eyes. All I can see is green, the dark shape of the river wall faint. I turn around and begin to swim down the wall behind me.

Five feet...ten feet...fifteen feet...there!

I push into the tunnel quickly. I can feel my lungs grow tight and my head start to become faint. I push harder and harder, rising up the slope...

And break the surface.

I take several greedy breaths of air before I look around at my surroundings.

Oooooh yeah. This is _definitely_ the cave.

I look around at the cave. The dark, black walls, stalagmites, and stalactites look like they're embedded with shining blue jewels, but on further inspection, I see that they're actually full of Human Souls, stowed away for later. The cave is large and round, with the only lights coming from the Souls. I look around and see it's bigger than I thought. It's the size of a ballroom, with a high, dripping ceiling and puddled floor. The ceiling goes up a good twenty feet. A dozen tunnels are embedded in the walls, leading to who-knows-where, like a warren.

"Homey," I comment to myself with a smirk.

**"I don't see Ukete anywhere. Do you?"**

"Probably hiding. Or he's out to get more Souls. Or maybe he's in the bathroom."

_Hissssss_

"Guess not," I say before I spin around.

Ukete looks like a rat, and not figuratively. Literally. His jaw is long with a shapeless nose and long black whiskers. His eyes have gone beady, darting backwards and forwards and sideways. His hands have fingers, but they're long and clawed. A long, snakey tale is poking out of the dirty, ragged trench-coat he's wearing. His skin has gone gray and scaly. He's staring (well, facing, since his eyes are continuously darting back and forth) at me from behind one of the stalactites.

I stare at him for a long time.

With a Kawaii Face, I remark, "Awwww~! He's so fluffy~!"

He hisses at me, flashing rows and rows of razor sharp teeth and a long, sharp tongue. His eyes bulge out of his head.

"Nnnnnnnot so fluffy anymore."

I jump out of the way as Ukete comes darting down from the ceiling. He turns to where I stand, hissing monstrously as his eyes bulge an inch out of his skull. I grimace. "Eeeeeew." Rosamunde turns into Chakram-Blade Mode in my hand.

But as Ukete hunches forward, his claws curling inward and his lips pulling back in a crazed snarl, I know what he's about to do. He's going to be like Shizāoni. He's going to try and pounce on me again. So I can just pierce his head like before.

So, as Ukete pounces at me, I hold the Blade out, waiting for the force of his head pushing down my arm.

Buuuuut there's a problem.

Ukete's jaw is three feet wide, no exaggeration.

So, when I try to pierce his head...

...he chomps down on my arm.

For a moment, I stare down at him, with his razor teeth dug into the flesh of my arm. He's bulging eyes are still, unmoving. There's absolute silence.

Then I whirl around so that he can't see my eyes, glittering with pained tears, as I hold my arm close, punctured with a hundred bloody black holes, a small whimper in my throat. I take a deep breath and turn around, forcing a smile.

"Alright. Alright," I click my tongue, still smiling. "I see how it is. I see how you wanna-"

I cut my sentence off short as I look down at Ukete. He's withering on the ground, his head stuck to the bottom of the cave whilst the rest of his body flails, limbs and tail waving around crazily. It looks like a rat having his head chopped off (no irony intended.) He's howling and hissing loudly, and his eye are almost popping out of their sockets.

"Black!" Ukete rasps wildly. He chatters and howls again. "Blackblackblackblackblack! Blood! Bloodblood! Black Blood! Blackblackbloodbloodblack!"

I look down at my arm, dotted with countless holes from Ukete's razor teeth. Black Blood stains my arm, hardened like rocky ribbons. I've never heard of someone _drinking_ Black Blood. I just thought it would make that person absolutely cuh-ray-zee, but I guess it can cause them pain, too.

Ukete, still flailing, begins to scurry away, running into one of the many tunnels in the walls.

I run after him, with a rosy-cheeked Kawaii face. "Why can't we be friends~?"

It gets darker and darker in the tunnel, and eventually, I can't see anything, until blinding sunlight suddenly rains down on me. I look up and see that in his retreat, Ukete had dug a wide hole in the ceiling to escape. I jump up, grab the edge of the hole, and clamber back onto solid earth.

Ukete is jumping from canyon wall to canyon wall, still chattering loudly about Black Blood. I quickly run after him.

Soon, we're neck-in-neck, and he suddenly pounces on me. His sharp nails dig into my skin, bringing on more Black Blood as the two of us tumble down the slope. I try to stab him with Rosamunde, but all I get is a foot good, deep cuts.

I'm engulfed by coolness and realize that we've fallen into the river. Ukete starts to panic, clawing and kicking at the water. Why did none of the other pairs defeat him? He's so scared and helpless! I mentally tell Rosamunde to turn into a Chakram Blade and stab Ukete in the abdomen. He gurgles in the attempt of a howl as red blood gushes into the green-blue water. He swipes at me, creating a large gash in my neck that leaks out in a black cloud, but doesn't take me down.

I kick back from him, just long enough to estimate where to stab next without interference, then stop. Ukete's flailing has turned to pathetic swiping, then just hard twitches. Then he just stops moving completely. I eye him, trying to see if I've stabbed him somewhere without noticing, then realize that he's just drowned. Again, why did no one else just take care of him?

I grab the collar of his trench-coat and begin to pull us both up to the surface. I take a deep breath of air once we do, and fling Ukete onto the dusty earth.

Automatically, his form curls in on itself, gray and brown morphing to black, his flesh into ribbons, until all that remains is a floating ball of red light, covered in hexagonal plates. Kishin Egg.

I let Rosamunde take on her real form. She and I fist-bump (cue explosions and AC/DC in the background) before she reaches into her pocket and takes out a jar. She swipes the Kishin Egg into it and closes the lid. "Two hundred and forty-nine!"

As she cheers, I look closer at the Kishin Egg inside the jar. My eyebrows furrow and I look closer. Carved into a plate of hexagonal honeycomb scales, I can see two symbols, or a language. One symbol is a straight line with a loop at the end, and a dot above it. The other has a loop at the beginning, goes straight, and slants upward-left, with another dot above it. I can just barely see it through the glass, but I think nothing of it. Maybe all Kishin Egg have those little symbols, but I've never seen them before.

"Let's go back to the DWMA," I tell her, kneeling. She nods, stuffs the jar back into her pocket, and hops onto my back. I hold onto her legs and begin to hike us away from the river. "Julie's hungees."

* * *

"Well done, well done!"

Rosamunde and I sparkle with pride as Lord Death holds the Kishin Egg-filled jar in one of his large white hands. The others (Black Star, Tsubaki, Maka, Soul, Crona, Kid, Liz, and Patti) stand behind us, most smiling and some glaring. Lord Death gives us a nonexistent smile. "You two never disappoint me."

"It was an honor serving with you, captain." I salute to Lord Death. Rosamunde mimicks this perfectly. "But I daresay that we must return home. I'm hungee and I want some pasta."

"Yes, yes, I trust that you do. Go ahead."

But he doesn't move an inch away from the mirror.

I smile at him and point to the mirror. "I gotta get home now, Mister Lord Death, sir."

"Yes. Please do." He still doesn't move.

I pause, still smiling, then wave a hand at him, gesturing him to move. "We gotta get to the mirror."

"Of course."

Still not moving.

"...You're gonna have to move, sir."

The tops of Lord Death's two holed eyes slant, to show that he's giving me a pitiful, pleading look. "Please say you'll come back!"

"I KNEW IT!" I shout at the top of my lungs, eyes wide and pointing a finger at him. "I KNEW THIS WAS A CONSPIRACY!" I pull Rosamunde into a hug, closing my hands over her ears whilst giving him a horrified look. _"You fed lies to an innocent child."_

"I just can't stand the thought of you always being alone in that little house of yours!" Lord Death sighs. His huge hands wave back and forth in wild expressions. "You have a life, you might as well live it!"

Maka smiles and steps over to my side. I look up at her with gleaming eyes, hugging Rosamunde closer. "It'd be really nice if you attended here. You can teach us more about Kishin Egg souls, and tell us about Kishin weak points."

"We can train together," Soul offers, giving me a relaxed but polite smirk.

Tsubaki appears on the opposite side of me, smiling politely. "We can hang out together. We mostly play basketball and eat food that Maka and I make, but it's a lot more fun that it sounds!"

Patti appears behind Tsubaki and Maka. She's hunched over, her fingers curled into claws. Her face is scary and serious. "YOU CAN JOIN OUR BLOODTHIRSTY ARMY!" Her face goes back to blushed and sparkly-eyed. "And we can color, and play with stuffed animals, and do arts and crafts..."

Black Star makes a point to stand far away from me, his masculine arms crossed over his chest and his nose stuck up in the air. "If the stupid hybrid wants to leave us alone, let it. Then things can get back to normal."

Kid's face doesn't change from emotionless and he doesn't move in the slightest. Rather, his gold eyes dart to the left to look away from me. "Honestly, I don't see how her attendance will benefit us."

Liz says nothing. She clenches and relaxes her hands, her eyes changing places on the floor. I can tell she's caught in whether to invite me to stay at the DWMA or to just get lost.

"And what about Rosamunde?" Lord Death asks. Rosamunde, meanwhile, just stares at everyone like she has absolutely no idea what on earth is going on. "It's about time she starts learning about our world! She'll be the youngest in the class, but there's no doubt in my mind she'll show great promise!" He says the last sentence with a wave of a pumped fist.

I take a deep breath and stand up, letting go of Rosamunde. She looks up at me with wide eyes, as if to ask 'What are we going to do?'. I look around at everyone in the room, observing at how they look at me. Hopefully, politely, friendly. Distrustfully, disgustingly, disdainfully. And what about all the hundreds of other students at this place? Sure, some might like it for me to stay, but wouldn't the majority want me to get lost as soon as possible?

So, I raise my voice loud enough for everyone to take attention. "OK, people. Here's what we're going to do: We're going to take a vote. All who want me to go away, raise your hand."

Kid and Black Star instantly do so.

"OK. Two. Raise your hand if you want me to stay."

Maka, Soul, Tsubaki and Patti raise their hands high, smiling. Crona doesn't raise his, but I think that's more for the reason that he doesn't want to upset anyone by voting. The effort is futile, as Ragnarok appears out of his back and forcefully raises Crona's hand, his own along with it. He gives me a big-toothed smile.

I look down at Rosamunde. She has her head cocked to the side, amaranth eyes wide and carnation eyebrows raised. She does this, sometimes, when she has to make a choice that involves the both of us. I can tell that she estimates what will happen to us, what the effect will be.

Finally, she gives me a soft smile and raises her hand.

"Alrighty. Seven. Guess I'm gonna-"

"FATHER, RAISE YOUR HAND!" Kid shouts from across the room, gold eyes wide. Lord Death lets out a small sigh but raises a big, white hand obediently. Kid sighs in relief. "There's eight now. Not seven."

"Eight," I go on without pausing. I smile down at Rosamunde with a small shrug. "Guess we're staying."

There are a few cheers of happiness, as well as some scoffs of annoyance. Lord Death lets out a small speech of joy and begins to tell us what we'll have to do now, now that there have been new changes to the DWMA over the years. Black Star leaves the room, grumbling in disgust, eventually followed by Kid. Liz hesitates for a long moment before following.

So maybe this isn't such a good idea. Maybe this is just going to blow up in my face and I'll be hiding under my bed in a week or less. But I guess you never know how things will turn out unless you do them, right?

* * *

**END EPISODE 1**

**Sooooooo. Thank you for your reviews. I appreciate the praise. **

**Just like my other story, I accept episode ideas/suggestions. Praise and criticism are greeted happily.**

**~LunarisAmor**


	4. Will Juliette Survive Her First Day? P1

**Fun fact #2: Juliette weighs 110 pounds.**

**xFosteRx:** Thank you. New campaign: _Chapters for Children_.

**Talyn Dains:** Yaaay!

**LadyDream3512: **Thank you~. Yes, I know killing off Splicer so early was harsh, but I thought it would add character to Juliette. And thanks, I try to make Rosamunde and Juliette's relationship as best-sisterly as possible.

**ALSO. LET'S HAVE A LITTLE FUN.**

**In every chapter from now on, there will be implements, clues, evaluations or hidden messages. In your reviews/private messages (if you leave them), try to tell me which ones they are.**

* * *

JULIETTE'S P.O.V.

"Pencils."

"Check."

"Paper."

"Check."

"Books."

"Check."

"Awesomeness."

"Triple-duper check."

"Darn straight." I toss my clipboard and pen over my shoulders and look down at Rosamunde. She looks the same as yesterday, part for the fact that she now has a baby blue backpack on her back. She had already covered the thing in small stickers, multi-colored sparkles, and marker drawings, with a yellow 'RJ' keychain dangling from the zipper. She's been bouncing on her heels all morning. She started to violently shake me awake five seconds before our alarm clock went off this morning. She nearly choked on her toothbrush in the bathroom, twice. She almost inhaled her cereal at breakfast. Now, she's ready to go and looks like she's about to break out into song at any moment. "OK, we just have to go over a few more things, alright?"

"Alright."

"What do you do if someone threatens you?"

"Tell the teacher."

"What do you do if someone corners you?"

"Call for help."

"What do you do if someone gives you a blue pill and a red pill?"

"Take the blue pill."

"That's my girl~!"

With this, we grab the last of our things and run out the front door in the direction of the mirror.

* * *

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Why is everyone staring at us, Julie?"

Ever since we walked into the building, students left and right had begun to stare at us, stopping mid-conversation to speak in hushed whispers. They stare down at Rosamunde with confusion, and for some girls, adoration. They glare at me with annoyance, hatred, and fear, only a few with innocent curiosity. The hall behind us is emitting the same three words every five seconds: "Kishin", "Juliette", and "freak."

"They're staring because they're jealous by how awesome we are," I respond from the corner of my mouth, bending down to whisper in her ear.

"Ohhhh..." Rosamunde lets this sink in for a moment before her back straightens and she holds her head a little higher. So adorables. Then, her eyes flick to the right and she exclaims, "This is our class!"

She runs forward and pushes open the door of Class Crescent Moon excitedly, and practically bursts into the room. I quickly slide in after her.

The Crescent Moon Class is in the shape of a half-circle. The walls are tinted yellow and the floor is made of smooth black and white tiles, like a checkerboard. Large round windows are high on the walls. It's like a college class room, with rounded desks like bleachers, stacking up higher and higher. The desks are wood with round red seats. There's a small stage at the front of the class with a rectangular wooden desk for the teacher, who's currently not present. A black chalkboard is behind the desk, and above it, a large Shinigami skull.

A few eyes stare down at me, but the majority of the class continues with their conversations. A few I recognize from the halls: the pink-haired girl and the brunette, both of whom are chatting with the boy with the round glasses and his Cyclops-glasses friend. The dark-skinned boy with the two twins. More pointedly, I recognize Maka and Soul, Crona, Tsubaki and Black Star, and Liz, Patti and Kid. Maka, Tsubaki and Patti wave me over. Soul gives me a cool 'wassup.' Crona gives me a small smile with his eyes averted. Black Star looks away in disgust, muttering under his breath. Kid doesn't even look. Liz just stares at me a moment before turning away. Rosamunde immediately runs up the gray carpet stairs to them, backpack bobbing.

"Howdy strangers," I smile cheerily at them as I skip up as well. Rosamunde salutes as I do so.

"How's your first day back been so far?" Tsubaki asks kindly. Black Star glares at her icily.

"We just got here. But so far, the two thousand, six hundred and forty steps it took to get here have been pea-chay keen."

Rosamunde stands on her tip-toes and leans forward to Patti, Tsubaki, and Maka. Said girls lean forward to listen. "Everyone's staring at us because they're jealous because we're so awesome."

Maka and Tsubaki giggle at that as Patti laughs loudly, almost falling out of her chair. Maka and Tsubaki give me 'I-know-you-said-that-so-she-wouldn't-worry' smirks. I give them a toothy Ragnarok smile.

Black Star glares at me menacingly from his seat beside Tsubaki. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Well, yesterday when I was cooking brownies for Rosamunde, I got a letter from Lord Death asking me to come here to take care of Ukete, so I came here and out of nowhere, this awesome guy named Black Star fell from the sky and—"

"That's not what I meant, idiot," Black Star growls loudly. Tsubaki promptly slaps him hard on the back of his head, causing him to lurch forward and bang his head on the desk. With blood running down his forehead, he continues to glare at me. "I meant, why are you in our classroom?"

"Because the ink says I need to be here," I chirp. Giving him a cutesy smile, I quickly take the slip of crisp white paper from my pocket. With a flick, I hold it out to him. He snatches it from me and reads it over.

**BLACK, JULIETTE**

**RANK: **0 Star(s)

**CLASS: **Crescent Moon

**TEACHER: **Professor Franken Stein

**SCHEDULE: **

**7:00-9:30: **Homeroom Class

**9:35-11:55: **Physical Education Class

**12:00-12:45: **Lunch

**12:50-2:25: **Dance Class/Dojo Class (optional)

**2:30-3:00: **Homeroom

**Notes:**

_Hello, Black__Star_

**Signed,**

_LORD DEATH_

**Lord Death**

Black Star scoffs annoyingly, particularly at his own name being on the paper, and without so much as a second thought rips it down the middle. Tsubaki gives him another hard slap on the back of his head, sending him forward once more, splattering blood on the desk. Honestly, I don't care. I already have my schedule memorized, and if I ever need to look again, I'll just look at Rosamunde's.

With his skin paled from blood loss, Black Star glares at the chalkboard. His glare is made more vicious from the several streams of blood running down his face. "I can't believe I'm going to have to look at your face every day now."

"Yeah, it stinks, I know." I reach over and lift Rosamunde up from under her armpits, bringing her in front Black Star. She gives him a Kawaii Face not unlike my own. "But you also get to look at this face every day~!" I mush Rosamunde's face together as I give him a baby face. "Look how adorable~!"

"Everyone take a seat."

Without turning to see who it is, Rosamunde and I both plop down in seats, Me one seat right from directly behind Maka, and Rosamunde beside me. The rest of the class takes their seats in hushed silence. I look up at Professor Stein. 'Fitting name' is all I can think. He's tall, with silver-gray hair and big, round glasses. He has a big bolt going right through his head. He has a patched scar running from his right-side forehead to his left cheekbone. It's not just his face, either. Everything on him looks patchy-scarred. His long white lab coat and multi-gray sweater are patched, too. Only his black pants and shoes aren't. He has a cigarette in his mouth, steadily smoking. He plops down in his caster wheel chair, the back against his chest. I see something shine on his finger as he moves, and I see it's an engagement ring.

After he takes roll, starting with Maka Albarn and ending with Pot of Thunder, he twists the bolt in his head and says, "In case word hasn't reached you yet, we have two new students with us today: Juliette Black and Rosamunde Voelkes."

I nod an invisible cowboy hat to everyone as Rosamunde energetically waves with a big smile. As to be expected, soft whispers break out across the classroom. Students lean forward, backward, and sideways to talk to the people around them. Black Star loudly whispers something incomprehensible to the three people around him. The result is Tsubaki, once again, slapping him on the back of the head, sending him forward. He doesn't move this time and a pool of blood forms on the desk top. Poor guy.

There's the sound of clinking metal, then metal flying through the air. At least twenty knives had been thrown around the classroom, razor-sharp and deadly, towards the students, closer to the heads of the particularly loud ones. The class's noisy atmosphere stops almost in a choke. Rosamunde makes an 'ooh' sound. I just smile.

"Manners," Professor Stein says in a completely monotonous voice, his hand still outstretched from throwing the knives. Then, he rolls back in his chair and approaches the chalkboard, grabbing a piece of chalk. Rosamunde immediately takes out a pink feather pen and sparkly green notebook. "Now, today I want to talk to you about Soul Communication..."

As he begins to speak of the silent messages that can be transported through Souls, a ball of paper lands in front of me. I make a Kawaii Face and open it like a Christmas present.

In big, black scrawl:

_**STUPID KISHIN HYBRID!**_

Complete with a very crude picture of what I can only assume is me, but with huge buckteeth, stick fingers, googly eyes and stink lines rising from my head. Accompanied by several dead flies.

Several minutes later, I toss it back to Black Star.

He raises a thin blue eyebrows and opens it up, turning it over to see the side I've drawn on. I can see it from where I'm sitting:

His name, in sparkling gold, the 'Star' part represented by an actual star, with the top point making the 'A' in 'Black.' Below is a very well-drawn, very detailed picture of Black Star, standing atop a large pile of dead Kishin bodies with one fist raised in the air.

Black Star is obviously baffled into silence. Finally, he rips the paper into pieces and mutters under his breath, "Stupid Kishin hybrid."

* * *

**There you go~. **

**So, no real clues or hidden messages in this chapter. All to be done here is an optionary evaluation.**

**~LunarisAmor**


	5. Will Juliette Survive Her First Day? P2

**Fun fact #3: Rosamundw is 43 inches high**

XxAnimeAddictedxX**: Not exactly. This is a very eventual KidxOC story, so...yeah...**

* * *

JULIETTE'S P.O.V.

Well, for the rest of the class period, the class practiced exchanging silent messages to their partners. It's harder than you think. You have to have enough power to link your and your partner's souls together, but not go into Soul Resonance, which is tricky. Rosamunde and I manage to cautiously link our Souls together after a few tries. I manage to send her messages ("Whaddup?" "How ya doin'?" "Bacon") with little effort, since I've been over this topic before. Rosamunde on the other hand, only managed to send me a weak "Hi". It's not really her fault. With her Soul damaged and all, she has trouble doing things with it. Sending me a message is like trying to swing a golf ball with one hand behind your back to her.

**9:30**

Finally, class is dismissed. Students let out a sigh of relief, grab their things, and head out the door. Black Star accidentally bumps into me on the way out, but I don't mind.

We manage to find our way outside of the building, where the running track is located. This actually looks to have change since I've been here. The track itself has definitely been upgraded in appearance, they've slapped a checkerboard finish line smack in the middle of the track. The grass around it is cut to the quick.

Rosamunde and I navigate ourselves to the locker rooms. We search through the tall metal locker shelves until we find ours. Mine is on top and Rosamunde's is one locker to the left from being underneath it. Both of our names are tagged on in big, bold capital letters.

We change into our physical education uniforms: cotton white T-shirts and polyester black shorts. My clothes fit me snugly, though they're a bit baggy on Rosamunde's small frame. The fact that the other girls in the locker rooms keep glancing at me from the corners of their eyes as I change does not go unnoticed. They're probably looking for bonus limbs or evil markings, maybe some extra eyes.

**9:40**

Finally, we all pour out onto the track field. There, the teacher has arrived and is waiting for us. He has dark blue, slightly decayed skin and lifeless eyes. His face is set in some sort of snarl-grimace combination. His nose is scrunched up into a piggish expression, his teeth bared immensely. He has short, dark brown dreadlocks capped with a white sweatband. His very muscular arms have dark gray, almost black, tattoos on the biceps. He's dresses in a dull green tank top and baggy, camouflage jeans with bulky combat boots.

"Alright, alright, everyone over here." He waves us over to him. Rosamunde excitedly snatches my hand and pulls me over. The rest of the class follows. The teacher's bared teeth open and close as he speaks. "Good evening, everyone."

The rest of the class choruses out "Good evening, Professor Sid." Rosamunde lets out a sing-song "Hello~!" and waves excitedly. I flick my hand in front of my forehead like I'm flicking up the top of a cowboy hat. "Evenin', stranger."

He gives me a look of slight confusion before his face shows (at least, sort of, through the grimace) familiarity and he replies, "Oh, hey, Jule. Nice to see ya."

Professor Sid takes roll of the class from his clipboard and says, "Alright, everyone. I want five laps in by the end of the period. Everyone take your places."

There are a few groans of annoyance. Rosamunde and I skip over to the checkerboard finish line with the other girls. A lot of them are wondering aloud how I know Professor Sid, of all people. They have no idea just how many people I know.

We take our starting stances, one leg extended behind us, the other bent forward, hands in fists. Rosamunde and I bounce in place, like video game characters in a sports game.

Professor Sid somehow protrudes a small blow horn from nowhere and presses down on the top. The loud, blaring sound blasts out as a result.

The class takes off. Girls launch their legs in front, one after another, increasing until they maintain the same speed. Their arms pump by their sides rhythmically. They count under their breaths, One-two-one-two-one-two, making sure to maintain speed and rhythm. The first lap goes by quickly, soon followed by the second lap. Muscles are tense and aching, sweat is running down skin. Hair becomes glued to their necks and the hot, dry wind brings tears to their eyes. The panting sun seems to laugh down at them gloatingly. But they keep going. At DWMA, slowing down at the the third lap is the same as quitting after walking three feet. Keep pushing, keep going.

Then, the class begins to slow down. Not out of tiredness, every one of them could continue going for three miles without slowing down. But rather, as they run, they glance around at the spread-out pack they had formed on the track. They each do a head count, made quite difficult for the ones in front who have to turn around whilst still running. Eyebrows furrow and raise, lips pouting out. Just as the checkerboard finish line is before them, they all stop right on the line, turning around with their necks craning and eyes searching. Finally, they find what they're looking for.

Jaws drop in disbelief. Eyebrows raise and lower in confusion. Noses crinkle at the audacity. Sweaty arms cross over chests in amazement. Voices scoff in annoyance.

Rosamunde is halfway through our first lap. Rosamunde is pumping her scrawny little arms and her small legs are launching as fast as they possibly can. She's panting from her mouth.

I jog along beside her, a Kawaii face slapped brightly on my head, trilling out motivations. "Doin' good. You're doin' great. Amazing! Dear heavens, you are like _lightning_!"

* * *

**12:00**

The cafeteria of the DWMA is a very large, very expansive room. The ceiling is placed very high, one wall entirely made of crystalline windows that give a plentiful view of the campus outside. The ordering station is on the side of the cafeteria opposite to us, a large Shinigami skull planted atop of it. The countless tables have white tops and bar-like red leather seats. The cafeteria is brightly lit with sunlight.

Rosamunde and I walk over to the ordering station, taking out our money out of our pockets as we wait in the small line. When it's our turn, we both look up at the order boards. Each is set into world cultures, such as 'French' and 'Chinese.' Rosamunde and I choose from the Italian menu. For me, Garlic cheddar chicken, and for Rosamunde, parmesean lasagna (which, adorably, she pronounced as 'la-sag-nuh').

I tell Rosamunde to pick our table. She stands up on her tip-toes, her small neck craning to see where to sit. Finally, her face breaks out into a big smile and she takes off running. I look up to see where she's going. I see Maka, waving in our direction with a smile on her face. Soul is picking some weird pink soup beside her. Beside Soul, Black Star is scarfing down a chicken leg and a bowl of seasoned rice at the same time, making Tsubaki cringe at that and the mountain of other foot on his plate. Across from her, Patti is arranging her chicken strips into a teepee, Kid is screaming about how the seating arrangement is assymetrical, and Liz seems more worried about her nails than her pasta.

Rosamunde sits down in front of Soul and beside Tsubaki. I sit down across from Maka and beside Rosamunde. Liz stops examining her fingernails, gives me a short stare, and dives into her pasta quickly. Kid stops his rampage and stares at me with wide eyes. Then, his gaze turns into an emotionless scowl and he sits back down. Black Star has two egg rolls just in front of his mouth when he sees me. He glares at me and sets them down back on his tray, grabbing it and standing from his seat. Instead of leaving the table, he instead sits down beside Kid so he has a horrible view of me.

"So how's your first day back been now?" asks Maka. Beside her, Soul takes a small sip of the pink soup and blanches.

Through a mouthful of lasagna, Rosamunde chirps, "I gaht an A mai-us in Profethor Thid'th clath!"

"I made a B-," I happily exclaim. "Since I wasn't technically running on the track." I turn to Rosamunde and give her a duece sign. "Even though we were da fastest people on da track!" I hold up my right palm in a high-five. "Gimme some."

Rosamunde happily obliges and slaps her hand to mine. Tsubaki and Maka giggle. Soul is hunched over above the floor like he's about to vomit.

"So what are you going to take next?" Tsubaki asks with interest. Black Star leans forward from three seats away to glare at her.

"I dunno," I shrug my shoulders with a smile. "Imma leave that up to Rosie."

"I wanna fight thumthing."

"Dojo class it is, then," I tell Tsubaki with a smile. She smiles back at me.

Black Star stares at me for just a moment before he sits back without a word.

* * *

**12:50**

The DWMA dojo is a wide room in the building with high ceilings matted floors, tape running over it to assign fighting areas. Metal side-benches are stacked up on one side, and there are four large, tall windows on one wall. Here in the dojo, students can train with each other or compete in full-out battles. There's a difference in dance class and dojo class: in dance class, you simply practice techniques. In dojo class, you actually fight. I can see Kid and Black Star near the corner of the dojo. Kid is shooting compressed wavelengths at Black Star through Patti and Liz, who are both, as it turns out, pistols. Black Star dodges every one and tries to swipe Tsubaki, as what appears to be a chain scythe, at Kid. Kid dodges each attack. They, along with everyone else, are fighting rather awkwardly. The areas they fight in are fairly large, but still, they're slightly packed when it comes to fighting.

The referee is a twenty-to-thirty something woman with cocoa skin, bright cyan eyes, and black dreadlocks somewhat tied into a ponytail, completed with a sweatband. She has an inky black tattoo on her left bicep. Only her eyes are visible on her face, due to the bandages wrapping from her cheekbones all the way to her neck. She has more bandages on her chest and her entire right arm is covered with them. Her left arm has them from under her bicep to her fingers. She's wearing baggy camoflage pants with two large tan pockets on either thigh. The pants cut off at her calves, and her feet are bare except for the bandages covering them.

"Evening, Nygus."

Mira Nygus looks up at us as he appraoch. "Oh, hey, Juliette," she greets in an almost sing-song voice. Unexpectedly, she gives me a one-armed hug when I come up to her. "Good to see you again, girl." She catches sight of Rosamunde, and her cyan gaze warms. "And who's this?"

"Rosamunde VOH-ELL-KEYS," Rosamunde chirps in response. She shakes Nygus's bandaged hand, gargantuan compared to her tiny one, with a smile.

"Well, aren't you a cutie?" Rosamunde goes as pink as her hair at this. Nygus chuckles and turns back to me. "You can go take a place now. Kilik and his partners will be here any minute now. You can pair with them."

"Will do, ma'am," I tip off my imaginary hat to her and begin to skip away. Rosamunde follows.

As I'm about halfway between the bleachers and the fighting place I've chosen, someone says, "Hey, hybrid."

"Yeeeees~?" I turn around to see who it is.

Black Star is standing a few feet away, muscular arms crossed over his chest and head held high. Tsubaki is trembling in his hands, and I can tell she's mentally telling him to stop. Black Star ignores her and says, "You and me. Let's go."

My silver eyes widen, and I turn my head left and right. I turn back to him and point a finger at myself to verify.

"Well, duh," Black Star scoffs in annoyance. "Do you see any other freaks around here?" Before I can answer, he says, "Just get your crap together and let's go."

"Well, OK, you sonuva gun," I wave a hand at him playfully. Rosamunde is bouncing on her heels in excitement. I point at the area I've chosen and the area he and Kid were at. "Where at?"

Black Star scoffs again. "I don't mean a fight like that. I mean a _real_ fight."

Rosamunde and I chorus in an 'oooooooooh.' But eventually, I just trill, "Okay-Dokay."

Black Star scoffs and turns on his heel in the direction of the referee. "Hey, Nygus. The hybrid and I are battling. Clear everyone out."

* * *

**So sorry for the late update! I've been very, very busy this week and my schedule's been all fumbled up.**

**Anyway, thanks for all the reviews so far! Please continue!**

**~LunarisAmor**


	6. Will Juliette Survive Her First Day? P3

**Fun fact #4: The name 'Juliette' means 'Young.'**

XxAnimeAddictedxX: **I will continue. And awesome fight is to come.**

LadyDream3512: **Yep yep. LET'S GET READY TO RUUUUUMBLLLLE!**

XFosteRX: **Grab my hand. *reaches and pulls you up* *pats you on the back* It's OK now. You OK.**

IcanCyou: **Thank you :) I try to give Juliette/Rosamunde a very strong sister bond.**

* * *

JULIETTE'S P.O.V.

The bleachers are surprisingly silent for being jam-packed with students. The only one making any noise is Patti, who's pumping her fists and chanting 'FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!' Nygus is standing in front of the bleachers with her bandaged hands on her hips.

"I want a clean fight, you two. The battle is over when one of you is rendered unable to continue fighting. I will make this clear: when one of you is unable to go on, the other is not allowed _under any circumstances_ to attack him or her. Foul-play will not be permitted. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Professor Nygus," Black Star and I both say. Black Star a bit impatiently and me very enthusiastically.

Black Star has his body turned to the side, both of his hands flexing and relaxing on Tsubaki's handles. The chain hang behind him. I hold Rosamunde in my left hand, gripping her handle. I mentally tell her to go from Chakram to Chakram Blade, and she complies quickly.

"The battle will commence in 3..."

Black Star glares at me harshly as he grips Tsubaki harder.

"...2..."

I give Black Star a Kawaii Face and wave at him.

"...1..."

Black Star rolls his green eyes.

"...GO!"

Black Star charges forward with his arms behind him and his body leaning forward. He's very, very fast. Faster than anyone that had been at the Academy the last time I'd been here, at least. He flips Tsubaki's blade in his right hand and bends his arm back, ready to strike.

Just as he gets within range to strike, I press my hands on the pressure points in his shoulders, press down, and spring into the air above him. I land on my feet with a loud thud about seven feet away. Black Star skids to a stop, his shoulder tensed and his neck rigged from the intense strike at his pressure points, and glares at me in annoyance. He wasn't used to missing, apparently.

He charges at me again, this time looking to hit me at a vertical angle rather than a diagonal angle. I place my feet apart and count the distance between us in feet. 20...13...4...

Black Star swipes the blade at me vertically. I lurch back at the last second. Before Black Star can recover, I hold his still-lowered arm down with my hand and swipe Rosamunde across his face.

Black Star stumbles back with a bloody gash in his cheek. Knowing him, it probably doesn't hurt, but it looks nasty. Red blood gushes down his cheek and neck. His green eyes spark at me. He literally growls. He breaks forward unexpectedly soon, holding his blade out diagonally again. He approaches closely, and I prepare to discharge the technique, only for him to slice at me vertically at the last second. Tsubaki cuts deep into the flesh between my shoulder and elbow, spurting out in black before hardening like stone. He somehow manages to throw Tsubaki's chain around my throat with his other hand, making sure it's tight before yanking hard. By breathing cuts off for a sudden moment as my body is pulled down. With his now-free hand, Black Star brings his fist to my face with a thundering CRACK.

The chain slackens on impact, and I go flying for a few feet before rolling and then landing on my feet. My face is stinging horribly, due to the Black Blood having nothing to do for that, but the nosebleed I have has already hardened. I brush it away, then pull off the jagged, crystal-like Black Blood chunk in my arm. The cut heals over immediately without a trace.

Rosamunde switches from Chakram Blade to Chakram, and I throw her at Black Star with a swing of my arm. She rockets through the air. Black Star holds up Tsubaki to try and block Rosamunde, but it's pointless. Rosamunde slices at him again and again, whizzing past him and then coming back around to slice at him again. Blood splatters against the mat. Rosamunde is too quick for him. He misses every time he tries to strike.

When Rosamunde flies back into my hand, Black Star has six cuts on his body. One on either of his arms, one across his chest, two on his right leg and another on his left. Red blood trickles from the cuts. He glares at me so hard I can feel it burning into my skin.

He whispers something I can just make out to Tsubaki.

"Tsubaki, Shadow Star mode."

There's a flash of negative, black light all around the dojo. Tsubaki has suddenly gone from a chain scythe to a dark katana sword, with a wicked blade and a shadowy air to it. What seems to be black lightning flashes along the blade. Black Star now has snake-like black tattoos around his face and arms. His shadow is pitch-black behind him.

Rosamunde and I both say, _"Whoa."_

Black Star brings the blade to stand in between his face, two fingers pressed against the blade as whispers, "Fourth Form: Branched Darkness."

Black Star charges forward again, but only for about seven feet before his body suddenly 'branches' out into a dozen more of himself. Thirteen Black Stars encircle me, all identical in every single way. Blades flash out from them. A blade swipes at my leg, then my arm, then my neck. Black Blood runs then hardens.

I curve my arm back and throw Rosamude hard. She slices through the Black Star, making them disappear into black shadows on impact, crawling away on the mats. She hits one of them, and the others vanish with flashes of black.

Black Star growls in anger and yanks Rosamunde from his arm in a spurt of red blood. She flies away from his hand and back to me, going back to Chakram Blade in an instant. Black Star swipes at me again and again. I lurch back and duck to avoid the blade. I manage to slice him good across his right bicep. In turn, he slices me across my stomach. This one hurts a lot, lot, lot worse. It's like...darkness piercing your flesh...pitch, black darkness.

The Black Blood hardens to rock, and I pull it out and toss it aside as the incision heals over. Black Star darts forward with Tsubaki extended to stab me. I quickly shoot to the left to avoid the attack at once. With his back still to me, I take Rosamunde and sink her into the flesh of Black Star's back.

Now, before you start panicking, I'll have you know that I made absolutely sure that I didn't hit Black Star anywhere where his life would be threatened. Rosamunde pokes through his chest on the other side, splattering blood on the mat. I pull her out, dripping blood, and back-flip a good ten feet away to await Black Star's next attack.

Black Star pauses a moment, I think more in shock than in pain, then turns to me. He looks very angry now. His eyes are narrowed to acid slits and his muscles are as rigid as rock. He charges forward again, fiercely, his Tsubaki-free arm bending back with his fingers curled around the palm of his hand.

"PLANET DESTRUCTION CANNON!"

He stops in front of me at the last second, his arm shooting forward palm-first to strike me in the middle of my chest with staggering force and amazing energy.

Just as his hand is three inches from my chest, I grab it in my own palm and the Wavelength he had been planning on blasting through me shoots through him, instead.

Black Star sails backward, stumbling and rolling until he roughly lands on his feet. He doesn't do anything for a long time. Then, he slowly rises, his muscles loose and his eyes covered in shadows. His tattoos are inky black against his skin.

Then, he raises his head to look at me with green eyes ablaze with fury.

"Shadow Star..._ZEROTH FORM_, _**MASAMUNE**_!"

Black Star's pitch black shadow rises into the air behind him, taking on it's maker's form like an outline colored in black. The shadow's matter splits in two, shooting to the back of Black Star's neck, wrapping around his throat, and taking the form of a two-ended scarf made out of nothing but endless darkness.

The two ends of the scarf shoot forward, faster than Black Star himself, towards me. They get closer and closer, their ends curling like fingers, towards Rosamunde and I, ten feet away, then five, then one.

Both ends of Black Star's scarf—icy black, hauntingly dark, no light whatsoever, shadows themselves—go through my chest.

I feel cold.

I feel very, very cold.

The scarfs detach from my body and go back to Black Star. My body crumples to the mat of the dojo. My Black Blood is jutting a foot out of my chest in the form of a large crystal. With numb hands, I grip it and pull it out of my flesh, letting it drop to the mat. I can't feel my legs. It's like someone froze the nerves in them.

I reach out numbly and tap twice on the mat.

"Juliette can no longer battle. Black Star is the winner!" Nygus's voice calls out to the dojo.

The bleachers erupt into cheers, screams, and whoops of joy. There's a stampede of sound and vibrations as the students leap to their feet and run down the steps to Black Star. They lift him over their heads like a very common scene in a high school-esque movie. Black Star is obviously enjoying himself. He has the biggest smile I've ever seen possible on his face and his arms are behind his head like he's resting. The bell rings just at this time. The group of new fans begin to lift him towards the doors of the dojo.

Rosamunde flashes to her normal self in a flash of blue light and crouches down next to me, hugging my side. I wonder if she had to feel what I felt. I hope not. My legs are returning to their normal state, and I'm warming up internally, but my skin is covered in goosebumps.

"Julie, are you OK?"

"I'm fine, sweet pea. Don't worry," I try to put on my silly voice as I say this, but it cracks.

I look up at the dojo doors. The crowd is pulling Black Star through, chanting cheers over and over, as he takes it all in. As they do so, however, he looks back at me.

He frowns. Not angrily, or acidly, or in annoyance, but as if he's confused.

I smile at him.

He scoffs and turns back around.

* * *

Well, word of Black Star's victory spread faster than a wildfire on gasoline-soaked silver birch trees. _Everyone_ was talking about it, even the teachers. Black Star sat up as straight as a pin with a ridiculously big smile on his face. I'm happy for him, I really am. Popularity has spiked for me, too. I've gone from 'The Freaky Kishin Hybrid' to 'The Stupid Kishin Hybrid Loser', sometimes added with 'Who Can't Hold a Knife Right for Her Life' or 'Who Always Falls on her Butt'. I'm happy that Rosamunde isn't getting any hate, though. For now, she's just called 'Rosamunde' or 'The Kishin Hybrid's Weapon', which isn't really offensive. But things had better not get to 'The Kishin Hybrid's Stupid, Phony Weapon.'

Finally, at the last Homeroom period of the day, Rosamunde and I sit in our claimed classroom seats near the others. Someone hits me with a paper ball, then a hard eraser, then a pencil that hits my temple tip-first, leaving a tiny pinprick of black. I remain smiling the entire time as Rosamunde continues telling Tsubaki and Maka of her day. She finishes the story of her arriving where she is now, and Maka gives me a confused look. "I'm surprised, Juliette. You've been fighting Evil Humans all these years, and you couldn't defeat Black Star?"

"WELL, OF COURSE SHE COULDN'T! NO ONE CAN DEFEAT THE GREAT AND POWERFUL BLACK STA—"

"I wasn't talking to you, Black Star," Maka sighs and pushes him out of the picture.

"Well, let me tell you the answer to that question, Maka," I say. I wig my finger at her to lean closer.

Maka does so, and I lean over so that my mouth is right next to her ear. I whisper:

_"I'm insane."_

Maka pulls back, her green eyes filled with confusion. I nod to show that I'm serious.

Finally, the bell dismisses for the final time today. Kid jumps to his feet with Liz and Patti in tow. Black Star stands up like a king rising from his throne, and several students follow him at his heels as he leaves. Tsubaki follows, obviously annoyed. Maka stands to her feet, grabs her books, and leaves behind Soul. I wait for everyone else to step out of the door before I stand up and leave the room. Rosamunde skips alongside me. Together, the two of us exit the classroom, and then the Academy.

* * *

**Thank you for the reviews, everyone! I'm happy to get them! Please continue!**

**~LunarisAmor**


	7. Can the Sacrifices to Anguilla Stop? P1

**Fun fact #5: The name 'Rosamunde' is derived from 'rosa munda', which is Latin for 'pure rose/rose clean'**

xFosteRx: **Neither did I, my friend. Neither did I.**

IcanCyou: **Will we ever know? Maybe.**

Elfen Child: **Thanks :) Actually, the red pill/blue pill comment was from The Matrix. I'm looking to read Marked, though.**

XxAnimeAddictedxX: **Thank you! I feel guilty for disappointing everyone, but also happy to write something unexpected. And thank you, again! XD**

coldgazeprotection:** I will, no worries.**

* * *

NORMAL P.O.V.

_Anguilla Sánguinum, literally 'eel blood' in Latin, resides in Lake Toribyūto of the small village of Gisei._

_Anguilla Sánguinum is said to be a monstrous creature, stretching an acre long and a half mile wide. Anguilla Sánguinum's mouth is said to be able to stretch wide enough to devour the entire village whole. Though blind, this demon can smell a living creature from thirty miles away. This creature gains its name from the silvery scales covering its body. These scales secrete blood into the surrounding water at all times, faster as the Anguilla Sánguinum's hunger grows. _

_Anguilla Sánguinum is also known as 'The Bloody Taker' by the occupants of Gisei. When Anguilla Sánguinum first appeared several hundred years ago, it rampaged on the village, devouring almost all of its occupants. To keep the demon at peace, the villagers of Gisei sacrifice one of their own to the monster whenever it appears at their tide. If these sacrificed were to stop, it is quite likely that Gisei and all of its inhabitants would be devoured in an—_

"Juliette, why are you narrating that book in a baritone voice?"

Juliette looks up from her book—the cover of which depicted _Anguilla Sánguinum _in black, harsh letters and a human hand floating in bloody water—and gives Kid a starry-eyed smile. "It adds dramatic effect," she replied.

The people around at her stare (for Black Star, glare) for a long moment before Soul says, "Well, you do it really well, I'll give you that."

"Thank you. —_instant, thus leaving Anguilla Sánguinum to_—"

"That doesn't mean continue."

"Alrighty then," Juliette closes the book with a clap of sound and sets it down on her desk, setting her elbows on either side of it. Beside her, Rosamunde colors a picture of a boy with spiky red hair.

Black Star reaches over and swipes the book away from the teenage hybrid. He flips through its pages, recognizing some of the words, but others nothing more than a bunch of shapes and gibberish. He holds the book by one side like it's an unidentifiable piece of roadkill. "What's this piece of crap you're reading, anyway?"

In her baritone voice, Juliette says, "_The legend of Anguilla Sánguinum._" Then, in a normal, chipper voice says, "I found it in the library under a stack of comic books." She points at the book several times. "That is some _hardcore_ Creepypasta, lemme tell ya."

Black Star scoffs—something he tends to do very much around Juliette—and mindlessly chucks the book across the room, where it lands crookedly in front of Professor Stein's desk. Said teacher does nothing, stuck in another dissection fantasy. "It's just a load of crap. None of it's real."

Juliette doesn't retort to this at all. Instead, her starry eyes flicker from Black Star to the book. Finally, she says, "I'm going to have to pay three bucks for that," and runs from her seat to retrieve the book. Maka brings her book down the middle of Black Star's head loudly. Said boy falls limply to the desk top. "Stop being such a jerk. And after seeing all the stuff I've seen last year, I can very much say that Anguilla Sánguinum is real."

"It _is_ real," Juliette says as she suddenly appears back in her seat without walking up the steps. The group of friends jump at her sudden arrival. "I've seen it before."

Tsubaki's black eyebrows raise on her forehead. "You have?"

Juliette clicks her tongue, silver eyes darting to the right. "Well...not the Anguilla Sánguinum _itself_."

Black Star coughs something that sounds very much like 'Attention hog', thus earning another Maka-Chop. Blood spatters the desk this time.

"Buuuut when you see several million gallons of blood appear in freshwater from absolute nowhere," continues Juliette, "It's pa-rit-ee obvious what it is."

The final bell rings for the day, and the group of friends leave for the door. Liz and Kid suffer through Patti's version of 'Oh My Darling.' Black Star goes on saying that the Anguilla Sánguinum is, without a doubt, a load of nonsense, earning a slap to the back of the head by Tsubaki. Rosamunde shows her picture to Juliette, who pauses, then smiles and says it looks _magnifique_. Maka hurries to catch up to them as they leave, with Soul in tow.

"Hey, Juliette!" Maka slows down to get to Juliette's walking pace. Said girl gives her a usual, ear-to-ear smile. "Are you going to go pick out a Mission today?"

"Naw," says Juliette. She glances down at Rosamunde's picture in her hand and hands it back to the little girl. "We'll be getting missions next week, when Rosie's got enough knowledge in her brain." She wiggles her fingers next to her temples.

"Do you wanna go to the Mission Bulletin with us?" asks Soul. He throws his spiky white bangs to the side with a toss of his head. "We could use some expert's advice on this."

Juliette makes a face that clearly says 'aw, shucks', and waves her hand. "You _guys._ Sure."

* * *

The Mission Bulletin is just as busy as any other day, crowded with Meisters and Weapons. About twenty-three Missions are available at the moment. The number increases and decreases as Missions are claimed and the receptionist brings out more. Maka, Soul, and Juliette observe all the Missions (Rosamunde had fallen asleep on Juliette's shoulders). Maka's eyebrows furrow on her forehead. "Uh...how about this one? Orge's kidnapped the prime minister of Kuwait."

"That's a Three-Star mission, though..."

"Uh...A clan of vampires just pillaged a village."

This idea is trashed when another student grabs this mission off the board right after Maka says this. Maka sighs and Soul glares at the retreating student. Juliette's hand reaches out for the board and points at one Mission. Maka reads it aloud.

**Stars Needed: **_2_

**Location: **_Geisei, Japan_

**Target:**_ Demon Eel_

**Synopsis: **_A demonic eel has rampaged on a nearby village and has previously killed several residents. This eel, sometimes referred to as the Anguilla Sánguinum, is usually kept at bay the resident's occasional human sacrifices. The Anguilla Sánguinum is likely to attack again, if not put to rest._

Maka finishes the Mission with wide eyes.

Soul looks, wide-eyed as well, past Maka. He does a double-take, darting left to right to look around his Meister. "Where's Juliette?"

Maka spins around. The raven-haired teenager and her pink-headed Weapon are nowhere to be scene. They had vanished from sight.

"Hey, Maka, what's that in your hand?"

Maka looks down and realizes with a jump that she's been grasping a book. She holds it up to see. _Anguilla Sánguinum _is written on the front of the cover in black. In place of the floating human hand in bloody water is a yellow sticky note, covered in blue pen writing.

_Take this._

—_J_

* * *

**Thanks for the reviews! Please cont. X3**

**~LunarisAmor**


	8. Can the Sacrifices to Anguilla Stop? P2

**Fun fact #5: Originally, Splicer was going to remain as Juliette's Weapon. I changed it so that Rosamunde would be her Weapon and had Splicer...y'know...**

Souleaterhetalia: **Yaaaay!**

Elfen Child: **No problemo! Happy to hear from ya!**

something-off: **Thank you! Welcome to the fanfiction!**

* * *

NORMAL P.O.V.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Is this it?"

"I guess so..."

Maka and Soul observe the village of Gisei. Everything seems very...bleak. And gray, very gray. The buildings are made of either stone or wood, and all of which seem exactly the same, with no significant structures. The ground is made of packed brown dirt, and there are only a few things outside the homes. A wheelbarrow, a barrel, a crate. There are no plants, no animals, domestic or wild. Gray and brown and black. Even the sky is a bleak, cloudless gray. The people are bleak themselves. They wear straw hats and burlap-like clothes and sandals made of wood. They look very strange to the eye. They all seem very surprised and shaken. There eyes are big and bagged, their pupils dilated and darting from direction to direction. Their eyebrows are plastered high, twitching occasionally. There shoulders are rigged and their muscles spasm at random. The only people who do not look like this are the children, who look pretty miserable playing with their toys of wooden-stick dolls and board games with pebbles for dice.

It also seems to be a bit...trashed. Not destroyed-buildings, fire-everywhere, down-to-the-ground trashed, but there are obvious disruptions. This building's roof is smashed in like a hammer had dropped down it. Half of this building is slanted and smashed. Shingles and wooden beams and stones litter the ground. There is more, Maka and Soul knew, that they could not see.

Maka clears her throat and looks at her mirror-map. The orange dot represents her and the light blue dot represents Soul. There are at least a hundred and twenty black flecks around them. There was no dark green X in sight. But the green letters flashing in the corner, reading 'ARRIVED AT DESTINATION' in the corner. Maka stuffs the map back into her pocket and turns to her Weapon. "Well, this is it. Smile and act natural."

Soul puts on a huge, sharp-toothy smile in reply. Maka elbows him and walks forward. No one notices them at first. Maka raises her voice and calls, "Excuse me?"

No one says anything. They all continue walking, muttering under their breaths (not to one another) and twitching at every sound.

"Uh...Hello? We're from the DWMA, and uh..."

No one pays them a lick of attention. Maka huffs and cups her hands around her mouth to yell,

"WE'RE HERE TO HELP WITH THE ANGUILLA SÁNGUINUM!"

Aaaaaand everything goes crazy.

Immediately, every single villager in Gisei begin screaming at the top of their lungs. Maka and Soul flinch and slapp their hands over their ears as the shrieks cause them to ring. Hands fly into hair, fingers stretch skin, and fists tear clothes. Everyone is suddenly running to and fro, flailing their arms and screaming so hard their chests quake. Children begin to bawl and scream in fright and run into their houses in fear. A man lifts up his wooden wheelbarrow and slams it into one of the walls of the house before taking off running. A woman falls to her knees and starts ripping out fistfuls of hair so that blood spatters the dust below. A man spins in several circles before white foam begins to bubble from his mouth and he falls to the ground.

Maka and Soul gawk in horror. Maka turns to her Weapon, her emerald green eyes dilated in the shock of the chaos, and screams loudly, "WHAT DO WE DO?"

"WE COULD LEAVE!"

_"SOUL!"_

"WHAT? WE'RE CAUSING MORE DAMAGE THAN THE...YOU-KNOW-WHAT!"

Another voice booms over the screams and shrieks, and Maka and Soul turn to see who it is. There's a man stomping towards them. He's _outrageously_ thin, having probably an ounce of fat on his entire body. His black hair is paper thin and he has several thousand bags under his eyes. His skin is as pale as snow and the burlap clothes he's wearing makes him look like a dressed-up skeleton. His pupils are the size of pinpricks and when he walks up to Maka and Soul, they realize with disgust that he smells like blood and dust. "DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?" he slurs. His teeth are bizarrely yellow.

"I'M SORRY!" Maka screams back. "I DIDN'T MEAN FOR THIS TO HAPPEN! WE'RE FROM THE DEATH WEAPON MEISTER ACADEMY, AND WE'RE HERE TO HELP WITH THE PROBLEM!"

"WE DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!" screams the man. "WE HAVE EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL WITHOUT YOU HERE!" His voice cracks horribly on 'without.' Maka flinches.

"BUT SIR, IF YOU LET US HELP, NO ONE ELSE WILL BE KILLED!"

"YOU LISTEN HERE, KID!" The man's bony fist shoots out and grips the front of Maka's blazer. He pulls her in close to his face, their noses a hair's breath away. Maka gags. The smell of salty blood and dry dust is almost staggering and she wants to vomit. "YOU GET OUT OF HERE _RIGHT NOW_!"

"HEY, BACK OFF!" Soul shoves the man away from his Meister with sharp anger. He had only meant to do it enough for the man to get away from Maka, but his bony body crumples at the force of the push and the man falls into the dust in a cloud.

He glares up at Maka and Soul so menacingly it's as if he's possessed by a demon. He spits and hisses at them. "Get. Out. Of. Here. You. Do. Not. Help. Leave. Us."

There's a sudden calm in the panic of the village. All the screams, shrieks, and shouts of horror and terror suddenly turn to shouts and cheers. The three humans look up to see what's happened. All of the villagers have suddenly packed together in a tight crowd, stomping down the street in a cloud of dust. Fists are pumping and voices are shouting in agreement. Someone is shrieking in horrifying agony that makes the air ring. The man suddenly shoots up to his feet and darts after the crowd. Maka and Soul pause, then follow.

* * *

The village has gathered at the shores of Lake Toribyūto. It reminds Maka of the illustration she saw in _The Gray Waters_. The grass around the lake is dead and yellowed like dead fingers rising from the ground. There are a few black trees standing around, leafless and dead, nothing but wooden skeletons. The lake itself is ash gray in color, either reflecting the sky or it's gray itself, only quivering in the soft wind. It's more of an ocean than a lake, as Maka and Soul cannot see the other side. The smell of blood, ash, and salt is almost staggering, and bile rises in Maka's throat.

The villagers crowd around the shoreline of the lake, shouting and cheering and waving their hands in the air. The one woman in the crowd is still shrieking and screaming pleads. Soul grabs Maka's arm and leads her through the thick throng of people until they reach the clearing at the other side.

The sight in front of them is horrific: a woman is on her knees, mucus and tears running down her face as she shrieks and screams shrilly. Two men have their hands gripping her wrists to hold her back. The same man that had spat at the two teens to leave the village stood with his toes in the water, a small infant in his hands. He raises the infant over his head.

"STOP!" Maka screams. A few other voices scream in shock and everyone turns to look at them. Several people step back from the two teens, looking like flowers in a field of ash, and mutter to themselves. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"ANGUILLA SÁNGUINUM NEEDS PROPER TRIBUTE!" screams the man holding the infant. The poor child begins to cry, his eyes squeezed shut and his face red. "THE TRIBUTES HAVE TO BE YOUNGER! WE CANNOT SEND THE CRIPPLED ELDERS WE HAVE BEEN GIVING IT FOR CENTURIES! ANGUILLA SÁNGUINUM NEEDS YOUTHFUL TRIBUTE! THIS INFANT WILL SAVE US ALL! SAVE US ALL!"

"NO, PLEASE!" the bound woman shrieks. Her voice begins to crack and her body trembles with sobs. "NOT MY CHILD! PLEASE, NOT MY LITTLE BOY!"

"SILENCE!" shrills the man. He gives the woman a pinprick-pupil glare as foam begins to form at the corners of his mouth. "YOUR SON IS TRIBUTE! HE WILL SAVE US! TRIBUTE! TRIBUTE!"

No one notices the gray waters of the lake turning redder by the second...

The man raises the infant high to chuck it into the waters of the lake. The infant cries, his mother shrieks, and the villagers cheer it all on.

Suddenly, the crazed man is pushed back and lands on his back with several crunches of dead grass. He makes a guttural growl and stares up at his attackers, the whites of his eyes veined with red.

Maka and Soul glare down at the insane man. Soul shoves his hand, which had just pushed the man to the ground, back into his pants pocket. Maka cradles the crying infant in her arms, bouncing it up and down to try and calm him. The villagers begin to scream and shriek in protest. The mother of the child crumbles into sobs and bawls of relief, blubbering 'thank you, thank you' over and over.

"Alright, everyone listen up," Maka begins, and the villagers actually listen, turning their screams into whimpers. Her speech loses some of its luster as the infant continues to bawl. She sighs and turns to Soul, holding the infant out from under his armpits. "Hold him." Soul hesitates, then takes the baby with slight difficulty, holding him with one arm around his shoulders and the other on his back. He obviously has no idea what he's doing. "You need to CALM down! Feeding an innocent, defenseless child is NOT the answer here! Now, if you would all BE QUIET and LISTEN instead of crying like a bunch of idiots, I'll explain what's going on!"

"GET OUT OF OUR—!"

Maka brings her black boot up to the insane man's face with a thundering crack. The man falls back down to the dead grass, his face streaked with blood, and doesn't sit back up. Maka rolls her eyes and continues.

"We're here from the Death Weapon Meister Academy! We've been sent to kill Anguilla Sánguinum and put you all to peace! If you would please cooperate, you won't have to make sacrifices anymore! You can all live and prosper in peace! Now, if anyone objects, speak now."

Silence.

Then:

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGHHHH!"

Maka turns around just in time to see the three-mile wide mouth, filled with fifty rows of razorous teeth, come shooting towards her.

* * *

**Cliffy! I love 'em!**

**~LunarisAmor**


End file.
